Chapter 103

Episode 103

“Whenever I see you…” Lee Jae-hak’s eyes narrowed as he spoke. “I can’t help but notice the perfect balance.”

His eyes were resting on Yoo-seong’s body.

“You’re in even better shape than the last time I saw you,” he added. At this point, Yoo-seong realized that he had taken off the Queen’s Hug.

Now, he was entirely naked before Lee Jae-hak’s eyes.

“Oh, oh!” At this, he immediately dove into the water, making a splash.

When he rose once more, he was now wearing the diving suit he had placed in his slot.

Lee Jae-hak couldn’t help but clap a little. To be able to get clothed that quickly was quite an impressive feat.

“Wait,” Lee Jae-hak told him. After he spoke, Yoo-seong felt something cold and hard touch his skin.

It was ice.

A plate of ice had extended from under Jae-hak’s feet to the point where Yoo-seong was floating.

“Can you come up?”

Of course, the ice was hard enough for him to stand on.

Whenever a wave splashed against the plate, it immediately turned into thin ice. This turned out to be Lee Jae-hak’s Freezing Psy.

It was a novelty amongst other Psy all over the world, and it was also comparable to their level of quality. Yoo-seong climbed up the ice plate and stood on sea level.

“This is incredible.”

“You are great.”

They spoke at the same time. Lee Jae-hak couldn’t help but laugh when it happened.

“It isn’t easy to freeze the sea instantaneously, even just a small area,” Yoo-seong explained.

Lee Jae-hak shook his head. “Yes. It’s not easy. Especially since the sea is at this high temperature right now.”

Even a slight increase in temperature required much more concentration as well as CE. The temperature of the water where they were now standing…

‘It’s almost like a tropical sea,’ he thought.

The sea was indeed wide. As much as it was difficult to freeze, it was also difficult to heat up in this manner.

Heat and ice.

‘What if we hit the water with equal amounts of CE?’ Lee Jae-hak wondered.

Would the temperature get closer to the warmer side or vice versa?

Yoo-seong was also curious about it.

However, neither of them pursued the thought. They were both confident in their abilities, but they also had common sense. There was no reason for them to actually test it out.

“But,” at this point, Yoo-seong changed the subject, “are you here because of me?”

As soon as he spoke the words, he realized how self-centered they sounded. He had no guarantee that Yang Chang-guk did not call Lee Jae-hak. However…

“Yes.”

Lee Jae-hak did not deny it.

Rather, he just smiled. After a moment, he asked, “By the way, is it okay for us to talk here?”

Yoo-seong looked around. They were in the middle of the sea, a little farther away from the Korean ships. Of course, both Lee Jae-hak and Yoo-seong could quickly move to the decks without difficulty if they wanted to.

However, Lee Jae-hak added, “I want to talk to you in private.”

Yoo-seong nodded. At his response, Lee Jae-hak’s expression brightened.

“I’m not very comfortable with Director Yang Chang-guk. I didn’t even know there was an operation here.”

Yoo-seong’s brows furrowed.

‘Is he saying that he entered this operational area without permission, all for the sole purpose of speaking with me?’

“Yoo-seong. Are you interested in Ki and Tech?”

Yoo-seong tilted his head, surprised at the sudden question. Were there any hunters who were not interested in Ki and Tech?

Lee Jae-hak raised his palm for a moment before laughing.

“To be precise, I’m talking about our Ki and Tech.”

Upon hearing that, Yoo-seong’s eyes widened. There was no such thing, as far as he knew.

Even civilians were curious about this sort of topic.

Even though they didn’t actually understand the concept of Ki and Tech, they knew that they were secrets passed down through history.

-Why doesn’t our country have them?

-We have a lot of tradition, too.

-Even the United States has them.

At one time, it had even become a national interest. Special programs and documentaries were filmed, all of them trying to search for the secrets of Korean Ki and Tech.

However, they found nothing.

The reason for it was clear. It wasn’t that there was no Ki or Tech in the country throughout history.

“The country’s leaders, its history, did not provide the environment for their growth. As you already know, Yoo-seong.”

Yoo-seong nodded. Of course, he knew this.

He had learned it in detail when he studied for the licensure examination. Their culture continuously criticized martial arts, and it hindered the development of Ki, which had once been active.

It was no different with Tech.

Records of martial artists being ruthlessly persecuted still existed as evidence. And Korea wasn’t unique in this.

Spain also held a period of witch hunts.

There were records that, during heresy interrogations, various practices which were almost certainly Tech had disappeared.

“What the textbooks taught us was wrong,” Lee Jae-hak somberly told him. He waited for Yoo-seong’s reaction. After all, anyone who heard it would surely be stunned or would laugh.

However, Yoo-seong simply said, “I see.”

It was Jae-hak who turned out to be surprised.

“Go on, please,” Yoo-seong added.

“Honestly, it’s a little disappointing that you had no reaction whatsoever,” Jae-hak chuckled.

“It’s not that I am not surprised.”

However, compared to what he had experienced in his career so far, this wasn’t something that would cause an intense reaction.

“Anyway,” Lee Jae-hak continued, “Korea definitely had a lot of Ki and Tech. Although there may be no definite successors, the records and materials necessary for their restoration are sufficient.”

“I heard that the Special Defense Agency already scoured the country several years ago to investigate,” Yoo-seong remarked. “They didn’t find anything.”

“They are lying.” Lee Jae-hak’s voice was firm. He glanced at the Korean ships before continuing. “I don’t have anything right now, but…”

He turned his gaze toward the Japanese ships. Yoo-seong could recognize the hostility in his eyes.

“If you look at China, even if cracks hadn’t appeared, they would have still practiced Ki and Tech into the present day. So, what happened to us? The quality of equipment, or is the culture poor? Or is it because someone didn’t want the successors to inherit such techniques?”

Lee Jae-hak’s tone and expression didn’t change.

Then he added, “Leto.”

Yoo-seong recognized the word. It would be strange if he didn’t. Everyone in Korea knew the Leto Group.

“Leto is the cause of the absence of Ki and Tech in this country?”

“To be precise, they are the cause of why people think we don’t have them.”

Leto was a corporate group that had been founded a century ago. It was founded by the son of the prestigious but fallen Joseon family, who had migrated to Japan and joined the ranks of Japanese aristocrats.

Now, a century later, it has grown into a large group with offices in both Korea and Japan and around the world.

However, the great rise of the company only happened about twenty years ago.

Using the Tech handed down by a famous Japanese family, the Sukune clan, Leto started hunting monsters.

“It was a good decision,” Lee Jae-hak remarked.

Tech wasn’t originally designed for hunting monsters.

However, as early as the second crack that occurred in Japan, the Chairman of Leto, along with his sons, had hunted beasts using the Tech they learned from the Sukune family.

The public reaction to it was explosive, and the stock price of the Leto Group began to rise.

Not only had it regained its status, but it had even expanded its territory.

Now it could be said that they had a significant hold in the political world, not just in the business world.

“You may be aware of it, but the second year the cracks began appearing, our government started looking for hidden Ki and Tech we could use in this country. We weren’t behind other countries.”

However, Leto was just too fast. Perhaps it was because of their ability to foresee what was going to become a trend.

They knew that in the future, Tech would be an intellectual property that would have value above all else. When families and guilds that had Tech were treated as cults, Leto wasn’t afraid to showcase their Tech before anyone else could.

This changed the narrative for them and so they reached out to the gold mine across the sea.

The Korean Peninsula.

They had hoarded Korean Tech before the government could release their own money and manpower.

“I understand what you said. Everything,” Yoo-seong told him. “But do you have any evidence?”

It was a rational question. If Lee Jae-hak had evidence, wouldn’t it be easy for the Korean government to demand the Tech back from Leto?

However, Lee Jae-hak shook his head.

“No. They exhausted everything so that it was easier for people to think our Tech never existed at all. And they never left any traces of it.”

“So how do you know all of this?”

“It is natural,” Lee Jae-hak responded quickly. “If you, Oh Yoo-seong, could learn and develop a Tech, isn’t it natural to think that our ancestors had them, too?”

Lee Jae-hak’s face held a distorted expression for a moment. However, it lasted only for an instant. This was because Yoo-seong wasn’t his target.

Yes, Yoo-seong had things that Lee Jae-hak didn’t have. Over the years, despite having his Psy, it was something he’d yearned for.

However, now, with Yoo-seong… Now he had a definite bait to lure the sharks from across the sea.

“Yoo-seong, you will be…”