Chapter 90

“A week off?”

“Yes. Exactly as you heard.”

Team Leader Choi’s call that evening came as a surprise.

A whole week off? Had something happened to the Guild?

That thought reminded me of something troubling.

“Uh, this isn’t because of some problem with Sangdong Guild, is it?”

“Sangdong Guild?”

“You know, because of the whole Im Changsoo thing…”

“Ah, you don’t need to worry about that. The Guild house remodeling is supposed to be finished in a week.”

It was a relief to hear that nothing had happened. But did people really stop raiding because of Guild house remodeling?

Still, a whole week off sounds nice.

For the past seven years, I had lived with my eyes fixed straight ahead, running without rest. Lately, I had been going back and forth between Murim and reality, spending my days without a moment to breathe.

Honestly, I wanted to re—no. Times like this called for working even harder. My voice rang with determination.

“Team Leader. I want to work.”

“Ah, but you’ll still receive your full salary during your vacation.”

“Then I’ll see you in a week.”

“……”

“I’m hanging up. I need to eat dinner.”

“…Yes.”

As soon as I ended the call, Hayeon hurried over and bowed politely.

“Oppa.¹ The evening meal has been prepared.”

“……Could you stop talking like that? It’s giving me goose bumps.”

“Switching to casual mode requires a paid purchase.”

“You sure found a complicated way to ask for allowance.”

I held out two fifty-thousand-won² bills, and Hayeon grinned.

“Mom says dinner’s ready.”

“Oh, what’s on the menu?”

“Beef bulgogi.³ And bean sprout soup that I made.”

“Beef bulgogi³ sounds good.”

“Mom says my bean sprout soup is good. She praised me.”

“Mom’s homemade beef bulgogi³ never lets you down. It’s always fresh, the best, thrilling.”

“……”

My thoroughly pissed-off little sister and a table laden with Mom’s cooking.

What was so special about vacation? I would eat and sleep to my heart’s content at home.

Tap.

Choi Minwoo set down his smartphone after the call ended. Butler Kim, seated across the table from him, asked,

“What did he say?”

“He was already worried about Sangdong Guild.”

“The more I see of him, the more interesting that young man becomes. He seems to act without thinking, yet he’s quick to grasp the situation.”

Choi Minwoo drummed his long fingers on the table.

Even now, some time after Jin Taekyung’s sudden appearance, his existence remained a mystery.

When they had first met, Taekyung had seemed like nothing more or less than a diligent F-rank Hunter. Yet yesterday, he had single-handedly swept through a B-rank Gate.

He’s getting stronger.

As of yesterday, his suspicions had turned into certainty.

Jin Taekyung was getting stronger. And he was doing so incredibly fast.

“Is there no additional information about Jin Taekyung?”

“No. I’ve repeatedly reconfirmed everything, but nothing has turned up.”

Butler Kim was a man who handled his work thoroughly. But this time was different. Choi Minwoo carefully opened his mouth.

“Butler Kim.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

“Could you perhaps look for cases of Hunters who awakened a third time?”

“What?”

Butler Kim’s eyebrows twitched.

A third awakening? It was a term he had never heard or seen in his entire life. If a Hunter like that had existed, no one would have used the word reawakening.

A reawakening was called a reawakening because there was nothing after it.

“Young Master, that…”

Just as Butler Kim was about to express his difficulty, a name flashed through his mind.

Jin Taekyung. If it’s that young man, who knows?

Butler Kim was a living witness who had experienced the Great Cataclysm firsthand. He had accomplished brilliant feats and participated in countless battles.

Yet even to his eyes, Jin Taekyung was special.

Those movements… They were truly remarkable.

Sometimes forceful, sometimes fluid. His transitions between offense and defense were efficient, and he possessed an innate combat sense that told him when to advance and when to retreat.

Watching Jin Taekyung fight, Butler Kim could think of only one word: overwhelming.

A third awakening, huh.

It would take time, but it was worth investigating.

Butler Kim bowed his head.

“I’ll look into it.”

“Thank you. Ah, what are Sangdong Guild’s movements like?”

“They’ve deployed surveillance agents. They’ll probably obtain most of the information within a few days.”

It had not even been half a day since word came that Im Changsoo had been summoned to the Guild Master’s office and beaten like a dog, yet Sangdong Guild’s watchers had already latched on. They were moving faster than expected.

“Their target must be Jin Taekyung.”

“They’ve likely marked him as a key figure, though they’ll begin by thoroughly investigating the entire Guild.”

“What about the other Guild members?”

“I’ve warned them in case someone follows them. But…”

Butler Kim hesitated before adding,

“Shouldn’t we tell Jin Taekyung as well?”

“It’s fine. In fact, I hope Sangdong Guild’s intelligence network is far superior to ours.”

The person who was hardest to understand—and the person about whom the most had already been revealed.

It was like looking into a clear spring and still being unable to see what lay inside.

Even if it meant using Sangdong Guild’s power, Choi Minwoo wanted to get closer to Jin Taekyung’s true identity.

“More importantly, it seems Sangdong Guild’s Master is extremely angry.”

“He seems to have grown much more cautious. In the old days, he would have stormed in and caused a scene by now.”

“Ah. Could it be?”

Butler Kim smiled at Choi Minwoo’s reaction and nodded.

“I’m acquainted with Sangdong Guild’s Master.”

“An ill-fated relationship?”

“Who knows?”

Butler Kim’s smile deepened.

“What can I do for you?”

I answered the real estate agent, a man whose forehead shone brightly.

“I’d like to look at a house.”

“Are you looking for a monthly rental? A jeonse lease?⁴ Or perhaps…”

“I’m buying.”

“Well, well. So you’re a young Boss. Sorry, but wait just a moment. Let me take care of this and I’ll be right back. It’s so urgent I can barely hold it.”

I wondered what he needed to take care of, then noticed the toilet paper in his hand.

If that was the issue, he definitely needed to hurry. When I nodded, the real estate agent dashed into the bathroom.

“Have something to eat while you wait on the sofa. There’s some mocha bread on the table. Gnnngh…”

Pfft. Pffft.

“……”

I’d never be able to eat mocha bread again.

I lamented inwardly and leaned back against the sofa. On the television, which had already been turned on, a documentary about the Great Cataclysm was playing.

“Aaaah!”

“Crash! Boom!”

“This is an emergency bulletin. Unidentified phenomena are currently occurring across the country. In response, the government has declared martial law effective immediately…”

People scattered, screaming. Buildings collapsed, flames soared, and news reports announcing the beginning of the Great Cataclysm flashed by one after another. Then the haggard face of the President of the United States filled the screen.

“We have yet to determine their identity, but one thing is certain: they are our enemies. Not only the enemies of the United States, but of the entire world and all humanity. Even now, countless monsters are passing through Gates and invading Earth.”

Gate.

A Gate meant a door, quite literally. The Demon King Asmodeus had opened that door from beyond another dimension and descended upon Earth with an innumerable army of monsters.

After that, it went exactly as written in the textbooks.

Humanity had been helpless. Downtown areas, rural villages, mountains and seas, jungles… Gates appeared regardless of time or place, and the monsters pouring through them committed murder and destruction.

By the end of the hellish period known as the Bloody Week, which began when the Gates first opened, casualties had reached the tens of millions. The property damage was too vast to calculate accurately.

The Great Cataclysm: The Most Horrific Ten Years in Human History.

By the time the documentary reached its midpoint alongside the caption, the bathroom door flew open.

“Whew. Now I feel alive.”

The real estate agent plopped down after wiping his sweat-slick forehead.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. You said you were looking to buy, right?”

“Yes.”

“Did you stop by anywhere else before coming here? There must’ve been plenty of real estate offices along the way.”

“No, this is my first stop.”

“Really?”

Judging by the way his eyes rolled around, he seemed to be deciding whether or not to take me for a sucker. I pretended not to notice and held out the note I had prepared.

It had the address written on it.

“I’d prefer to see a property around this address, if possible.”

“This address… That’s in a safe zone.”

“Yes.”

“You really said you wanted to buy, right? Did I hear you wrong because I had to take a dump so badly?”

When I nodded, the man’s eyes traveled subtly up and down.

Jeans and a white T-shirt. Twenty-thousand-won⁵ sneakers bought at a market or online. No matter how you looked at me, I wasn’t dressed like a man with money.

“What do you do for a living?”

“I run Gates.”

“Oh, a Hunter? I thought so. You’ve done well for yourself at such a young age.”

A bright smile blossomed across the man’s face. Hunters were one of the most prominent high-income professions. It was hardly unusual for young, successful Hunters to buy expensive houses and cars.

He asked in a much friendlier tone,

“Have you checked the market prices?”

“I searched online on the way here.”

“Then you’re in luck. There actually happen to be a few listings available. Let’s see…”

Perhaps he was excited by the prospect of a sale, because the man began making calls to one person after another.

He spent about five minutes hanging up and dialing again before putting away his smartphone and turning to me.

“I found a listing that’s perfect for you, Boss. If you’re not busy, how about we go see it now?”

“Sure. Why not?”

I was on vacation, so I had no reason to refuse. As I rose, the man beamed.

Vroom.

I sat in the passenger seat of the sedan and watched the scenery pass by. Detached houses stood in rows, shops dotted the streets here and there, and playgrounds and schools appeared along the way.

“It’s changed a lot…”

The agent glanced sideways at me.

“Did you used to live around here?”

“When I was a kid.”

I had been in my third year of middle school—sixteen years old—so it had been exactly eleven years since then. I had been born and raised here, so in a way, this was my hometown.

“This area was redeveloped about ten years ago, so it must look pretty different. It used to be an old apartment complex, but when they heard an Association branch was going to be built within thirty minutes of here, they tore the whole thing down.”

“I see.”

I already knew. Housing prices had skyrocketed as soon as news of the redevelopment broke. The jeonse⁴ deposit had risen by hundreds of millions of won,⁶ far more than we could afford, so we decided to move.

It wasn’t long after Dad died.

On the night before we moved, I saw Mom crying silently.

It was several years later that I learned the place had been my parents’ newlywed home.

“We’re here.”

The agent’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. I opened the door and stepped out to find a detached house with a yard.

“This is the address you gave me, Boss. The owner happens to be out, so let’s have a quick look and be on our way.”

“Ah, just a moment.”

Maybe it was nostalgia. The old apartment complex had already been demolished, but the area still felt strangely familiar.

Still… I’m glad it hasn’t changed completely.

Some traces of the old scenery remained even after the redevelopment. The real estate agent smacked his lips as he watched me look around, lost in nostalgia.

“You must be happy to be back after all this time. Why don’t you take a lap around the neighborhood while you’re at it?”

“Is that okay?”

“You’re going to sign the contract. Aren’t you?”

“No. I mean, yes.”

I had to buy this house, no matter what.

The agent chuckled and took out a cigarette.

“Then I should accommodate you. It won’t take long to walk around the neighborhood. I’ll stay here and smoke while I wait, so don’t worry about me.”

After offering him a brief word of thanks, I began walking slowly.

Is this the right way?

I passed through an alley and spotted the supermarket I’d often visited as a child.

“When Oppa¹ was a kid, this place was his hangout. Back when he smoked like crazy in middle school, the old lady here was so old that…”

A gleaming foreign car was parked in front of the supermarket. A man and woman who had been talking together stopped when they saw me.

No—the man was the one who stopped.

He tilted his head, approached me, and asked, “Do you know me?”