Chapter 96

Matap (1)

On the day the aurora overcast the sky, the Korean Government made their official statements.

The summary was as follows.

– The current phenomenon is intended by the Government, and the public does not have to be anxious about it. The Government apologizes for not having disclosed it in advance, but it was a matter of national security, and they took the initiative of executing it before the announcement.

– [Aurora of stability] is an item acquired by a guild that has close cooperative ties with the Government, and the Government was aware of the effect through [Analysis] beforehand.

– The proposed idea of using all of the supply of the guild’s item in South Korean territory was first offered by the guild to the Government.

– The Government inquired about the method of acquiring this item, but the guild refused to disclose it.

The Government didn’t reveal the guild that first offered the proposal, but people already had a guild in mind.

The Internet went wild.

– Obviously, it’s the Celestial Dragon, LMAO. What’s the use of anonymity?

– I mean, why does everyone conclude that it was Seo Jin-Wook from the Celestial Dragons? There’s also Destructional Blade and Grand Croix. Gate Keepers, too.

↳ Seo Jin-Wook was the one that received the SS-Rank at the fastest rate, stopped the A-Class break with only three people, and have scouted the SSS-Rank hunter who, even the British Government, failed to lure. Don’t you see the lines connecting here?

↳ The common element is that it’s an achievement that no one has ever done before.

↳ Grand Croix has recently gone to smithereens, and it’s beyond the capabilities of other guilds for them to have done it.

↳ Yep, I agree.

Seo Jin-Wook’s accomplishments had been so impressive that everyone seemed to be convinced that the event at that time was done by him.

Of course, there were doubtful voices among them.

– But why are they keeping their identity anonymous? I don’t understand. It’s an achievement worthy of being praised by sweet words and filling the Celestial Dragon’s office with medals.

↳ This is also a theory… But there is a story that Seo Jin-Wook refused.

While numerous deductions were happening like that, other countries’ governments were contacting the South Korean Government.

A fierce espionage and information war was happening in the private sectors.

Seo Jin-Wook was being requested for meetings from many foreign guilds, but he refused all of them through excuses.

But then…

“Guild Master, this is a request for an interview with the British Matap Guild. Just like the rest, should we…”

“Yes, make an appointment. Even if that’s going to be today.”

“Send a reply of decline while being polite with adequate reasons…. Wait, what?”

Seo Jin-Wook repeated was he told his secretary, who opened his eyes wide because of the unexpected answer.

“Make an appointment. I don’t have any plans today anyway, so I’m free anytime.”

Secretary Kim nodded in surprise.

*

The interview, which was undisclosed to the media, took place just past noon.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Arthur Clifford.”

The silver-haired man extended his hand with a smile.

His appearance seemed like he’s only in his early 20s, but he was actually an old man over 70 years of age.

He Awakened at the age of 50 and fully rejuvenated according to his Mana’s activation rate.

It was Arthur Clifford, the head of the Matap Guild.

“It’s a pleasure. I’m Seo Jin-Wook.”

We lightly shook hands and sat down.

Arthur kept his eyes fixed on me with a relaxed smile.

I held back my anger that rose by seeing his face.

‘The amount of trouble I’ve had in my past life because of him…!’

Arthur, who had no idea how I felt, spoke in a tone that manifested his years of living.

If someone looked at him without seeing his tainted soul, he seemed like a perfectly composed gentleman.

“Thank you for responding to this sudden request. It’s an honor to meet the source of the issue which got everyone talking around the world these days.”

Naturally, he laid down compliments for me. He was saying that he was surprised as well by my achievements.

However, as I listened silently without any change in facial expressions, he soon cleared his throat and moved on to the main subject.

“I’m sure you can guess why I’ve paid you a visit today, but a few days ago….”

I cut him off.

“That’s not me.”

I had to pretend initially.

“I know why you came here to talk. That aurora… it wasn’t me. If you’re here for that, please go back.”

“Hahaha.”

His lips drew a curve.

Arthur didn’t even pretend to listen to me.

“I know what you’re worried about. You must be afraid of the drafts. In the onset that you reveal it, the guilds aiming for the item worldwide will boldly rush in. Isn’t the current situation already like this, even only with a sloppy rumor?”

He continued his explanation by pretending to have a wholesome face.

“And no matter how good a hunter you are, isn’t the Celestial Dragon Guild… Boldly speaking, just a small local guild when looking at an international level?”

Wouldn’t you look at that bastard?

While placing my hands on my chin, I stared at him to provoke him to continue.

“Even if it’s No. 1 in Korea, from an outsider’s perspective, there are a lot of factors that it lacks. Especially if you look at the members…. There are only one SS-Class hunter and two S-Class hunters, right? On the other hand, we are a big guild with more than 20 hunters above the SS-Class.”

One SS-Class and two S-Class, huh.

Although it was a count considering Hibiki, who was recently promoted to S-Class, the important part was missing.

“There’s also one of SSS-Class.”

“Oh, you mean Abrams? He’s such a fickle friend. I’ve experienced it myself a few times.”

Both of them were active in the U.K., so they must have encountered each other.

Arthur continued as if to guarantee.

“Staying in Korea for a while right now would be under the influence of his fickleness. If he loses interest, he’ll leave again.”

I didn’t know. Would it be so?

I silently listened to him with a faint smile.

Like I wanted him to talk more.

Then Arthur let out a quick glance that seemed to say, ‘won’t you look at this bastard?’ and immediately wrapped it up.

Hmph, no matter how hard he tried to taunt me, I wouldn’t be playing his game.

“So what I’d like to say is that… Our Matap guild will be the help behind our Guild Master Seo Jin-Wook and the Celestial Dragon guild.”

I sighed internally.

‘How come you, bastard, isn’t any different from my previous life?’

No, of course, he wouldn’t change since that bastard was the same bastard in front of me.

It’s a waste of time to listen to more, so I asked him a question that time.

“Is the Matap such a great guild?”

“… Haha! Well, I’m baffled to hear you say so.”

An unpleasant feeling lingered around his eyes, who had maintained a gentle attitude and facial expression so far.

To lead the world’s largest guild was a solid pride that drove the human being named Arthur Clifford.

By meddling with it, his true color was revealed.

He is polite and civil on the outside, but taking a look inside, he is ignoring the Celestial Dragon.

“As you know, we have a virtually exclusive distribution of Magic Skill Cards above S-Class.”

There were no other note-worthy guilds in the U.K. besides the Matap.

That was because Matap destroyed or absorbed everyone.

In the process, they received full support from the British Government, and that’s their secret.

As I pretend to act interested, I played as he wanted me to.

“I’ve heard of it. Shepherd 2 dungeon.”

Thanks to the ‘something’ that existed there, the Matap Guild obtained many Magic Skill Cards of rare S-Class or higher Class every year.

Initially, magic was famous for being rare among the skill cards, but the probability of getting an S-Class or higher was wicked.

The probability of random acquisition converged to zero unless they chose the reward by looking into the reward content like I did.

However, there were so many of those cards in the Matap that most magicians had already learned. It reached the point where it created a ‘surplus of S-Class cards .’ Those were sold at a tremendously high price.

Since there was little supply even in the black markets worldwide, it was safe to say that the Matap was selling those products exclusively.

“I heard that they say it’s the source of funds that enabled Matap Guild to grow this much?”

Arthur smiled happily.

He didn’t confirm or deny my words.

But his face was horribly distorted by my words that followed.

“That the Shepherd 2 dungeon, that is so precious from the perspective of the Matap guild, had entered the state of ‘very unstable’…”

After saying that much, I check his expression again.

Indeed, the old snake quickly reverted its distorted face to its original state.

But, the expression that collapsed even for a moment convinced me of one thing.

‘It has already started. Sigh, you stupid bastards blinded by greed.’

The silence that hovered around my office for a moment was quickly broken.

“Haha, it’s a calumny that’s not worth listening to. Our guild closely observes the Gate of Shepherd 2 Dungeon. There’s still no change in the ‘slightly unstable’ state. You can be assured.”

“Oh? That’s not what I heard.”

“My, my… I’m curious about the source of this false rumor.”

His expression that hid his expectation looked at me.

I shrugged my shoulders.

“I heard it somewhere, but I forgot.”

I was assured once more of the reason that Arthur Clifford found me.

The Shepherd 2 Dungeon, which was solely managed by the Matap Guild without any British government personnel monitoring the Gate, had already progressed to a very unstable state.

And Matap hid the fact from the British Government.

‘Because if they close the Gate, there will be no way to consistently ‘make’ magic cards of S-Class or higher!’

That’s why they’d been holding out for so long.

They left the Gate, which could collapse at any moment, open.

In the middle of doing so, the aurora that appeared in Korea was enough to make Arthur Clifford, famous for his heavy buttocks, fly to the other side of the globe.

“Guild Master Seo Jin-Wook, you’d better ignore such false rumors. It can cause unnecessary misunderstandings.”

Saying so, Arthur got up from his seat.

He must’ve decided that it was impossible to persuade me based on my attitude.

He looked down on me.

“Let me leave you one last piece of advice. Please consider this advice as something from an experienced person who has lived in the world a little bit more than you, Guild Master.”

He had a calm flame in his eyes.

“Everything has to be done according to the place you belong in so that it doesn’t hurt you. If you have something that is out of your league in your hands, then all the more for you to be careful.”

It was a threat in which his intent was obvious.

I shook my hand to open the office door, pretending to not hear him.

Outside, Nate was waiting.

“Nate, show him the way out.”

Arthur went outside with a cold aura without looking at me as if he held it in as much as he could.

Nate walked along beside him, guiding him in the direction.

After seeing the shadows of the two briefly overlap and part, I turned my glance again.

*

The head of the Destruction Blade Guild, Seo Moon-Ga-In, waited for the person who requested a secret meeting.

‘Arthur Clifford? Why would such a great man suddenly…’

She didn’t hear that he had already dropped by Celestial Dragon in the afternoon to meet Seo Jin-Wook, but she could guess.

‘Does this mean that he is already done with the meeting with Celestial Dragon? It’s incredibly fast considering that he entered the country yesterday.’

Currently, Destruction Blade was firmly established as the second-largest guild in Korea.

Grand Croix lost two of their S-Class hunters, Kim Kyung-Rok and Kim Ji-Hoon, in vain and was at the brink of a collapse.

Most of the rapidly escaping hunters hoped to transfer to Celestial Dragon, and people expected that Celestial Dragon would absorb them all and grow in size.

But the reality was a little different.

If hunters, who left the Grand Croix, were to be 10, Celestial Dragon accepted only three of them, but they didn’t simply cut them in order of grade, so the standard was unknown.

People couldn’t know that Seo Jin-Wook used his future memories to pick out only those who had large growth potential in the future and wouldn’t cause large and worthless problems.

Thanks to that, the remaining 70 percent was almost all accepted by the Destruction Blade Guild. They preferred not to join the GateKeepers as they needed them to play a boring doorman and an unprofitable business.

‘Nevertheless, the gap between Celestial Dragon, who is No. 1, has widened.’

That was because Celestial Dragon continued to scout hunters regardless of nationality by unknown standards, with their questionably large sum of money.

‘Is it really going to be okay this way?’

The moment she asked herself that.

The door opened, and a silver-haired man entered.

It was Arthur Clifford.

“It was a sudden request, but thank you for seeing me.”

The two sat down after exchanging a short greeting.

Arthur Clifford didn’t do long greetings, unlike during the day.

He immediately spoke as if it’s a waste of time to sit there for a long time.

“Guild Master Seo Moon-Ga-In, are you satisfied that the Destruction Blade Guild is ranked second in Korea?”

It was a sudden question that stabbed its way right in.

Seo Moon-Ga-In’s face stiffened immediately.

‘What is wrong with this bastard?’

She grits her teeth and answers.

“No matter what the Matap guild may be… this is a little rude.”

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

Seo Moon-Ga-In avoided giving an immediate answer and thought about the intentions of the other person.

‘What are his intentions?’

Then…

Arthur waved his hand and continued to talk.

“Nevermind, I’ll get to the point.”

When he touched the terminal on his wrist, a hologram popped into the air.

The scene where two hunters died with their swords stuck in each other.

Seo Moon-Ga-In stared into the video without looking away or frowning.

In her eyes wasn’t the feeling of reluctance but the question of why he was showing her that.

“Do you recognize it?”

“Yes, Kim Kyung-Rok and… Dideric van Dyke.”

The body was found in the office of Kim Kyung-Rok of Grand Croix.

Arthur spoke in a calm voice.

“In fact, most of the media, as well as the Korean government, have not noticed Dideric’s true identity.”

Seo Moon-Ga-In’s eyebrows wriggled.

Dideric van Dyke was a Dutch-born SS-Rank hunter. The only information she knew was that he moved as a freelancer without belonging to a particular guild.

However, Arthur continued to reveal unexpected information.

“Dideric van Dyke was a hitman who kills Hunter for money.”

“…?!”

Arthur put up a few more screens in the air.

They all depicted Dideric’s real identity that even intelligence agencies in various countries didn’t know.

The face of Seo Moon-Ga-In, who was reading the materials one after another, stiffened.

“Then… No way!”

Arthur nodded.

“That’s right. Dideric van Dyke was forced to kill Kim Kyung-Rok due to someone’s request, but he died together because the opponent had an unexpected skill level. It’s murder commissioned with money. There were no resentment or profit arguments between the dead. The three missing Grand Croix must not have been involved in the incident and ran away but were slain by Dideric’s hands.”

“But, who the hell…!”

“You already know the answer, don’t you?”

In the mind of Seo Moon-Ga-In, Kim Ji-Hoon, who disappeared before Kim Kyung-Rok, came to mind.

Seo Jin-Wook had a conflict with the S-Class hunter.

“He’s young, but he seems to be much crueler than as heard from the rumors, that man named Seo Jin-Wook. He would even kill his competitors without mercy.”

In fact, it wasn’t that Seo Moon-Ga-In didn’t think of that possibility.

There was little information about the unexpected character of Dideric van Dyke, which clouded her suspicions.

But now that she knew van Dyke was a contractor…

Since she didn’t make the request herself, there was only one suspect left.

“But there’s no evidence!”

“Instead, there is a clear motive.”

“···”

Silence filled the room for a moment.

Arthur spoke as if with a good heart.

“I came here because we have a common goal. I’m planning to take Seo Jin-Wook to the U.K.”

“What is that supposed to mean–”

“Of course, Seo Jin-Wook’s opinion is not important in the process.”

“…”

Arthur intended to kidnap Seo Jin-Wook.

He judged that it wouldn’t be easy for the Matap Guild to kidnap, torture, and let an SS-Ranked hunter spit out the information they wanted, but it was not impossible.

What he was trying to find out, of course, was the method of acquiring the Auroras.

Arthur was convinced through that day’s encounter.

Seo Jin-Wook knew something!

“Even if it hasn’t been a year since he Awakened, he’s still an SS-Rank hunter. Instead of ambushing without any knowledge about him, I would have to figure out at least his ability in advance… The information was strangely insufficient.”

Other than during the promotion test, there were almost no instances where he revealed his skill in front of people.

“I thought you might have some information from a competitor’s perspective, as you’ve observed. What do you think? Tell me everything you know about Seo Jin-Wook so that I can get rid of him from Korea.”

Seo Moon-Ga-In’s pupils trembled.

Arthur Clifford was one of the few SSS-Ranked hunters in the world and a veteran among veterans.

No matter how much Seo Jin-Wook was, he seemed unable to escape from his grasp as long as he was determined to.

In the end, Seo Moon-Ga-In finished her short contemplation and opened her mouth.

“… Seo Jin-Wook’s unique skill is believed to be the ability to copy other people’s skills.”

“Hmm?”

Seo Moon-Ga-In began to explain his ability shown by cutting off Kim Ji-Hoon’s legs during the promotion test.

Seo Jin-Wook mimicked the skill that Kim Ji-Hoon was believed to have mastered alone on Earth.

“What happened at the time when the unique skill was activated was…”

Seo Moon-Ga-In and Arthur continued their conversation for some time after that.

Neither of them ever imagined that something hidden in the shadow was overhearing their conversation.