Chapter 85

Moths (1)

Grand Croix’s Guild Master, Kim Kyung-Rok, was screaming at his phone, “Does that make sense? Even if the CCTV at the spot where they’d found Ji-Hoon’s car was not working, what about other CCTVs? Were there really no traces found?!”

He talked about Kim Ji-Hoon, who was his brother and the only other S-Rank hunter in the guild, who went missing not long ago.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been keeping track of the situation through the police and the Hunter Department sources,” the guild member on the phone spoke with a dark tone, “They said that they really couldn’t find anything. Like as if he evaporated on the spot ···.”

Kim Kyung-Rok felt like his head was going to explode, and he was going to collapse.

‘The scene was clean with no sign of battle!’

Common sense suggested it was normal for people to leave even a small trace of being killed or kidnapped. Since there were none, it meant that an S-class hunter was one-sidedly attacked and failed to respond. Kim Kyung-Rok hung up the phone and continued to think while steaming with anger.

‘It’s possible with a large group of A-level Hunters, but no large crew can move cleanly without a trace like this. The opponent was definitely few in numbers. If they handled an S-Rank with only a few of them, it meant that at least an S or of a higher rank hunter is mixed in.’

No matter how hard he thought about it, only a limited number of suspects had the ability and motive to meet all these conditions. Kim Kyung-Rok gritted his teeth and muttered.

“For sure, this is an act by the Celestial Dragons, those bastards!”

It was clear that the Guild Master, Seo Jin-Wook, must have been involved.

“He took revenge for the trouble during the promotion review!”

In reality, it happened because Kim Ji-Hoon first taunted and even threatened his life. After his leg recovered, Kim Ji-Hoon himself rather publicly spoke that he would retaliate. To weigh the fault, his brother was obviously more guilty, but that was not important to Kim Kyung-Rok right now.

“Damn it; they have a clear suspect, and what is that bullshit that they can’t investigate!”

Grand Croix’s opinion, which pointed out Celestial Dragon as the culprit and demanded a thorough investigation, was silenced. In addition to the lack of evidence, Celestial Dragon’s top hunters, including Seo Jin-Wook, had a perfect alibi on the day.

“Yeah, it’s not a situation where we can rely on the public power anyway.”

For some time now, the government has blatantly been lenient to Celestial Dragon and Seo Jin-Wook. There have been complaints that it was discrimination against other guilds, but nothing had changed other than asking for some understanding.

“This leaves us no choice but for the Grand Croix to take revenge for ourselves!”

Kim Kyung-Rok’s heart was filled with deep feelings of loss and anger due to his blood-relative disappearance. Simultaneously, in his head, he was quickly judging and calculating the situation as a Guild Master.

“If this situation continues, Grand Croix will be overpowered by Celestial Dragon.”

His younger brother was both a precious blood relative and one of the hunters that represented the guild.

“Before it’s too late…”

Both the public and Awakened had already begun to recognize Celestial Dragon as the nation’s No. 1 guild. A critical move to flip the situation was needed. As Kim Kyung-Rok was desperately thinking about ways to grab both revenge and benefit into his hands, a voice called.

“Guild Master!” The door to the office opened, and a guild member rushed in.

“What is it?!”

“I think you should check the n-news!”

He quickly opened the hologram as if there was no room for further explanation. The news screen, which was being carried on as an emergency breaking news, filled the space.

– …As for that, neither the Celestial Dragon Guild nor Adam Abrams himself disclosed further explanation. Meanwhile, the British government has sent a formal letter of protest through its diplomatic channel, saying that no prior arrangements were made, and has expressed their position to sue them with unlawful exportation of hunters to the International Hunter Union. However, the precedent suggested no way to force the parties on both Adam Abrams and the Celestial Dragon Guild. Also…

Kim Kyung-Rok’s face became blank, ‘What were they talking about?’ The announcer’s words made their way to his ears, but the meaning did not properly settle in his head. Two phrases that reminded him of another were mentioned along with the news.

Adam Abrams, a British SSS-Rank hunter with the Celestial Dragon Guild of Korea.

Dumbfounded, he murmured, “What? Why were they on the same news?”

And the moment the announcer’s face disappeared in the hologram, and the photos of the Guild Master Seo Jin-Wook and Adam Abrams appeared as the reference data.

As the subtitles changed, unbelievable sentences were reflected in Kim Kyung-Rok’s eyes.

– Breaking news! Adam Abrams, a British SSS-Rank hunter, joins the Celestial Dragon Guild!

– Celestial Dragon; will become a large-scale international guild beyond being the no. 1 in Korea?

As Kim Kyung-Rok finally grasped the totality of the situation, his temples’ veins were protruding.

He shouted as if he had lost his mind, “What does this make sense?!” The following words were close to screaming, “Why does Adam Abrams sign up for Celestial Dragon right now?”

Clink!

Something flew, and the bulletproof window of the Grand Croix guild room was broken. It was already the second time that week.

*

I showed Adam the hologram after we moved to another place. Based on the system’s location information, the satellite image was taken by contracting with a company.

“This is the list that I have secured. Awakened from dimensions that were done with the tutorial.”

Adam whistled in admiration, “You got the Awakened location information without using a single point?”

Experience points were usually used to get this from the system in the first place, but he was amazed that I took care of this just with my words.

“How much did you overachieve to get this much reward? What have you done?”

I’d changed my words. I spoke while pointing at the pictures wherein most of them were camouflaged to seem familiar to humans.

“Anyway, do you know any being among them?”

I’d put the attempt to stalk the rest of the ones on the list without any good plans on hold. I thought, waiting for Adam’s reaction, ‘Adam noticed me even when I amplified the SS-class [Stealth] with an item. Other species might also be able to identify me in a way that I’m not aware of. I should avoid following them too close without knowing what they’re capable of.’

It was a lesson I learned from this incident. However, it wa not possible to leave them as they were when the list was in hand, so I was trying to get information through Adam.

He looked carefully at the picture on the map and said, “First of all, this guy, this guy, and this guy, and… oh, this guy.”

He quickly picked up six pictures from the map and the list, “Don’t touch these guys as much as possible. They’re 100% harmless to your world, so get your hands off them. Don’t follow them like you tried on me. Playing with the spark will turn into a wildfire.”

“Why?”

“These were the ‘eyes’ that the Union has planted on Earth,” He continued the explanation, “I didn’t know their fake identities. I get to find out through an unexpected path, huh. I see a pattern. Seeing that they’re arranged this way, it’s for sure.”

“When you say eyes, you mean that they were the watchers from the Union, right?”

Come to think of it, the position of the six was not concentrated at any point. They were scattered all over the globe at a certain distance. As if they were to divide this star into six zones and be responsible for each of them.

I remembered what the ministry spirit said.

– Based on their behavioral patterns, some were believed to have been dispatched with a mission as an observer.

‘That’s what it meant!’

Adam said, nodding his head, “Then, except for the six I picked, it meant that the rest of them were the problem.”

For a long time, those who stayed in this world, even when they were not aliens, were dispatched from the Union.

“There were no obvious characteristics like the eyes, so I didn’t know who they were from this point of view. They should have had their own reasons, just as I was here for a special reason.”

He turned his head and asked me, “Do you have any more detailed information about the alien you’re looking for?”

I did not tell Adam the details but only informed him that I was looking for a particular alien who had long been hiding on Earth. I recalled the man’s ability from Seo Gyu-Cheol’s memory. Besides the unique skill of [Mercardius’ Seed], there were many other peculiar abilities. For example, the ability to perfectly read Seo Gyu-Cheol’s thoughts without coming into contact with him and modify Seo Gyu-Cheol’s personality and completely erase his paternal love. Other abilities included being able to return Seo Gyu-Cheol’s body and the ability to give Seo Gyu-Cheol 10,000 potential Mana that could be activated within a day.

Adam’s face gradually distorted when he heard my explanation, “Hey, that thing. Were you sure it’s a mortal?”

“Have you never heard of it?”

“It’s mostly unfamiliar, and the effects are tremendous,” He thought about it for a while and said, “Something about it, it smells very dangerous.”

Was he saying that it was out of the ordinary even by the world’s standards where the tutorial had been completed?

“Let’s say everything else is as it is, but he can give someone potential Mana To say that is the capability of a mortal, it is rather…” He said in a low voice, “It’s almost like something that only the ‘system’ can handle.”

No way, it can’t be. Adam pondered and told me, “This is interesting to me, too. I’ll gather information from my original dimension as well.”

“Thanks. Anyway, you’re saying that there’s a mix of dangerous beings on this list, right?”

He looked at the hologram with a different glance, “Hey, one piece of advice is…”

“Yes, I’m not going to stalk them.”

“I’d recommend that, too. It won’t be too late to decide after receiving a reply from our world. We don’t know what other hidden abilities our opponent may have.”

Then, he suddenly raised his voice, “If I barely had built a partnership with you and you die, I’ll be wasting my time and lose my point! It’s a no-no for you to die that sad.”

“I’m grateful, thank you.”

*

After that, Adam was leisurely lying around at home, waiting for me to receive a screening quest. I deliberately didn’t inform him that I was already selected. Screening quests were fluid trials in which content is changed in real-time and was linked to each other. To make the first step perfect, I decided to start the first quest to complete the upcoming historic event. Anyway, it was a quest that other people would only be able to access after a few years, So I didn’t worry about anyone else stealing it away from me. However, I lied because I had to explain the fact that I knew the future to justify such an explanation.

‘Since it’s a difference of little time anyway.’

When the future event I remember took place, I planned to say that I received the screening quest and then proceeded with the Clear. On the other hand, Adam’s life as an unemployed man unintentionally ended early because of me.

– Breaking news! It’s the update that the Celestial Dragon Guild’s Gate Search Team had found another gate again in Jeonnam. It’s already the 7th gate they had found by the guild this month. They were discovering new gates at a truly phenomenal pace.

The search team was expanded and reorganized and consisted of support-type Awakened, locally and internationally. They dug up the gates as if they were pointing out the water veins all over the country.

“Hmm? What. There were such monsters? I’ll be right back; I will be going there for a while.”

Some monsters got Adam interested, as were found suddenly, and if he saw such a thing, he went on a single-person mission. When he finished collecting samples, he also Cleared them. Such behavior only made Celestial Dragon’s evaluation go up further. Of course, the guild’s public relations team quickly arranged to satisfy and manipulate public opinion.

“The Celestial Dragon Guild sends an SSS-Rank hunter even to a C-Class dungeon!”

It was only because the type of monsters was important to him regardless of the Class of dungeons, but the public did not know this motivation.

“If they use their human resources like that, it would balance their profit.”

“They’re stating that safety of the people is more important than profit!”

“But isn’t the Celestial Dragon Search Team amazing too? They find a gate almost every day!”

“They mean to say that there is no business that could win over numbers. Has there ever been a guild that’s focused so much Hunter on the gate search? Most of them were busy mining cores in dungeons that had already been discovered.”

Obviously, if one could discover the gates well because of the number of people poured on the workforce, all the guilds would have done so. The real secret lay in the fact that I led the search to the right place, but those circumstances were unknown to the public. The public and the media were enthusiastic about the Celestial Dragon, who found the gates at a pace that could not be compared to the past. This excitement led to criticism of questioning the competence of what other guilds had done before.

It was pointed out that if they had invested in the workforce to the extent that the Celestial Dragon was doing now, they would have found more gates and lowered the risk of breaks. On the other hand, some seemed to have noticed that the Celestial Dragon’s momentum was clearly abnormal.

*

“Hmm?” Adam, who was talking to me in the room, suddenly turned his head. He didn’t use any skills, but he noticed someone’s approach.

“Oh, it’s him again.”

I could tell who he was talking about by unfolding the [Penetration] along the direction he was looking at.

“Woah, he’s hardworking. He checked in today as well.”

Back then, suspicious signs had often been seen around the guild building and my home office. First of all, envoys secretly sent from governments, hunter agencies, and foreign guilds offered me naturalization, offering various conditions. There was also a proposal to merge one’s country’s guild with Celestial Dragon, promising massive compensation. Of course, I didn’t even pretend to hear it.

‘I already have much money to the point that it might start rotting, and it’s most important that I can move freely in the first place.’

When there was no response, the spy that rushed in with another intention caught my eyes afterward. The unprecedented moves and achievements that Celestial Dragon had recently shown, meant that some were trying to dig up the secret hidden behind them. Among them was the man who was hovering around this house in disguise today as well.

I said leisurely, “He’ll probably cross the fence tonight.”

“How do you know?”

“Nate’s already sneaked one of his subordinates into his shadows.”

“Ahhhh,” Adam nodded.

*

That night, Seo Jin-Wook predicted the presence of an intruder. As expected, a man broke through the barrier and entered the house in the middle of darkness. The internal structure had already been completely identified through scouting and clairvoyance. The man hid by activating the highest ranked [Stealth] skill he could were used to help him not be discovered even though they were all over the house.

‘Here it is, the office in the house.’

The man’s goal was to identify the clues of the secret hidden by Seo Jin-Wook, the Guild Master of Celestial Dragon. He reminded himself of his goal once again.

‘In selecting the location of dispatch for the Celestial Dragon’s Gate Search Team, the Guild Master’s will take over about for 90% of the decision.’

The primary goal was to find out the critical factor affecting the decision. The intruder hid in the Guild Master’s office along the pre-identified route. Seo Jin-Wook inherited the place where Seo Gyu-Cheol originally used.

‘[Penetration!]’ He scanned the inside once again.

‘As expected, there’s a separate server only for the Guild Master.’

The secret of the Guild Master that wasn’t shared with other guild members should have been here. When a man plugged a microchip into a server, the hacking tool was activated. While the chip broke down the server’s security network and copied data without a trace, he noticed that it was his second target.

‘Safe!’ The man approached the wall of the office without hesitation. On the surface, it looked like an ordinary structure, visible to him. A barrier firmly protected the huge safe.

Chak! Cha-chak! Even though he had prepared in advance, the man had difficulty opening the safe. As if to imply how precious the item it protected was, the lock was like solid iron. After dismantling all the artifacts used to magic, the tightly closed door eventually opened.

The man’s eyes widened, ‘It’s the Guild Master’s sword!’

Finding clues to unlock the secret of Seo Jin-Wook’s remarkably fast growth rate

was one of the requests, and some people suspected that growth beyond the realm of pure talent was due to special items. Seo Jin-Wook’s most representative item known to the public was…

‘The sword that only himself knows about its details.’

There was no alarm magic or barrier on the sword itself.

‘First, let’s analyze its value.’

After finding out what it was, he planned to steal it and run away if everything went south. The man opened a [Analysis] scroll with one hand and carefully stretched out the other towards the sword. The moment he grabbed the handle of the sword, he heard someone whispering in his head.

‘······Sigh, you stupid bastard.’

The intruder stiffened his body, and then his eyes became blurred.