Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: The Shadow's Work
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The mark of pursuit had no physical form.
You could think of it as a tiny clump of magical fragments, bundled together so it wouldn't unravel.
Of course, there was a risk of detection.
If a knight or mage stronger than you were present.
But would the humans of Earth even be able to notice it?
When he first met them, he only planted the marks.
He didn't want to invite unnecessary suspicion.
However, the next day.
Kosak detected the signals.
Three magical fragments loitering near the officetel.
It was certain.
They were surveilling this officetel.
A place that seemed ordinary but housed many players.
This was where Summoner Bong resided.
And they dared to play such games?
A painful memory from the past surfaced.
The memory of failing to protect his summoner.
For players, the world outside the Tower was more dangerous than inside it.
You nip the smallest sprout of a threat in the bud.
Among other summoned beings, there were terrifying humans who, in the name of protecting their summoner, had wiped entire nations off the map.
Because that was preferable to the world ending.
If he were given the situation and opportunity, he would gladly do the same.
That's why he asked to be resummoned under the pretext of watching soccer.
Right.
He lied.
An act he absolutely should not, and could not, do.
But the Third Law of the Three Principles for Summoned Beings had already been triggered.
Thus, justification for the lie was granted.
What did this mean?
It meant the marked individuals were related to Summoner Bong.
While Summoner Bong slept, he used his Stealth skill to quietly slip out of the officetel.
Finding them wasn't hard since he had marked them.
And so, the place John Kosak arrived at was a shuttered massage parlor not far from the officetel.
The door was locked, but picking locks is a basic skill for an assassin, isn't it?
As quietly as possible,
*Click*,
He entered under stealth, heading towards the location of the marks.
There were eight of them in total.
They were conversing, but he couldn't understand what they were saying.
Since he shared a language with Summoner Bong, he would understand if it was Korean,
But what was the issue with the language?
The important thing was that among the photos scattered on the table, there were also pictures of Summoner Bong.
'I need to get to work.'
Silently, he revealed himself.
Then, he spoke a single word.
The men noticed him.
He imbued his dagger with sword energy and took out one of them first.
*Chup!*
*Sschk!*
"Huk!"
"H-hey!"
"Grab his arm!"
"Shoot him!"
"You bastard...",
Did he need assassination techniques for scum like this?
One shot, one kill.
With dual daggers in both hands, he stabbed their chests, shredding their hearts.
The room fell silent in an instant.
A total of seven corpses.
One survivor.
Deng Guanlin truly felt like he was dreaming.
Where was this? And who was this guy?
A Korean intelligence agent? A special forces soldier like UDT or HID?
No way. It was neither.
The inhuman combat power this monster displayed.
Was that even human?
'...A ghost.'
But he'd felt a similar sensation somewhere before.
A memory flashed.
The Black Tower conquest videos.
'A Player.'
If that guy was a Player, did it mean he could use his Tower abilities in reality too?
Suddenly!
The terrifying ghost turned its head towards him.
Deng Guanlin stumbled backward.
His legs were shaking so much they wouldn't move properly.
He himself had killed more people than he could count on his fingers and toes.
He had also undergone countless training sessions and real combat.
What was the big deal about seeing a few people die in front of him?
But right now, in this moment, he was utterly terrified.
Overwhelming fear had emptied his mind, leaving it a blank white.
"You're the last one left, huh?"
*Drip, drip*,
Blood dripping was from the ghost's blade.
"I was wrong, please. You know Korean, right?"
Deng Guanlin had no choice but to answer.
It felt like he had to.
"I was wrong...",
*Thud!*
*Gguk!*
The dagger stabbed through his lower jaw, pierced his head, and exited through the crown.
Kosak checked again to make sure no one was still breathing.
One beheaded, six with crushed hearts, one with a head puncture.
'Now for the finishing touch...',
Unconsciously, Kosak reached into his pocket for a ribbon.
But,
"Huff! I... I almost tied it. Hah, hah...",
Hold back, hold back.
You have to.
His signature mark.
His hands trembled with the desire to tie the ribbon, but he had to suppress his nature.
It could be called superhuman willpower.
Any fellow assassin who knew him well would be shocked.
No mark left behind?
Are you really Kosak?
It was because he had decided to hide it from the start.
If he had mentioned it beforehand, given Summoner Bong's personality, he would have definitely advised against it, telling him not to do it.
Whereas for him, it was something that absolutely had to be done.
He might be scolded like before.
Of course, he wouldn't be dismissed... but,
'Phew,'
Honestly, even that was uncertain.
The future was uneasy.
He might be cast out.
Gobang, who was R, had risen to SSR and firmly secured his position as a tank.
Meanwhile, his own once-solid position seemed to be shaking.
And soon, the day of the Random Summon.
Fortunately, if his trait was enhanced, one more slot would open, but if not?
The role an assassin like Kosak could play in the Tower was very limited.
If someone absolutely had to be let go, that person would be him.
"Th-that can't happen. It mustn't."
He had to stay by his side for a long, long time.
Now it was time to go.
But he couldn't return to the officetel.
Covered in the stench of blood, how could he enter that sacred place?
'He must still be asleep, right?'
He hoped Summoner Bong was sleeping deeply.
Sound sleep was closely related to health.
And himself?
He'd just look around outside until he was unsummoned, then return.
Joo-hyuk woke up after sleeping soundly.
Going out to the living room, the TV was off, and Kosak was gone.
He wondered if he enjoyed watching the soccer game.
First, time to prepare to go out.
He planned to visit his parents' house and then come back.
And in the afternoon, he had to climb the 35th floor of the Tower.
He called a car and arrived at his parents' house.
The bodyguard waited downstairs.
"Your son has arrived."
His father, Bong Cheol-su, frowned at that.
"Your way of speaking has been weird lately, you know?"
"Pardon? Is that so?"
"Did something good happen?"
"This humble one is always filled with good fortune. So I came to share some of it with you."
His mother, Hong Geum-ja, let out a *pfft* and laughed, then said,
"You haven't eaten, have you?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Good. If you're eating, you'll at least stop talking."
After finishing the meal his mother prepared,
"Mom, you don't need an allowance?"
"Ah, it's fine. I'll get a job soon."
"Where?"
"I'll try working at a restaurant or something."
Ah,
Korea's top Player.
A man with assets worth four billion won still couldn't let his parents live comfortably.
"I'll deposit a bit into your account. Take your time looking for a job...",
"No need. How can I use money my son earned risking his life? You save it. Who knows what might happen later."
Listening beside them, his father Bong Cheol-su made a circle with his finger and poked his own chest.
Without making a sound, mouthing the words.
Send it to me, to me.
'...'
Good grief, the power of genetics.
"Ah! Right. Here, I have Player Nam Ga-eun's autograph and... take one of these each. Always keep it in your inner pocket or wallet."
"Huh? ...Talismans?"
"Yes! This one's for health, this one's for luck. I prepared three each for Father, Mother, and Min-hyuk."
"You believe in this stuff?"
"I came to fully believe in it recently. The effect is incredible. A powerful shaman wrote them."
It wasn't a lie.
A truly powerful shaman.
He had experienced it himself.
"Hmm, okay. You have yours too, right?"
"Of course."
They would become healthier from now on.
And blessings would settle upon the household,
Even if they were very small ones.
After returning from his parents' house, Joo-hyuk gathered his summoned beings.
Since R Gobang had been reborn as SSR Gobang, he absolutely had to tackle the 35th floor.
"With three SSRs, we should have no problem up to the 40th floor with an S++ rating, right? Or is it a bit lacking?"
"That is an underestimation. We can easily handle up to the 50th floor."
Oh!
It seemed Gobang becoming an SSR was indeed a big deal.
"However, S++ conquest from the 51st floor onward is...",
He knew.
Giant flying monsters.
Griffins and Wyverns that use feather attacks or breath abilities.
They were strong enough to prey on Minotaurs and Ogres, the fact they were flying monsters made them tricky, and their magical attacks on top of physical force required caution.
Anyway, he planned to summon one more being in the 40s.
The key was whether the trait enhancement would appear or not.
So he stuck the talismans inside his underwear.
If more meant better effect, he would have plastered them all over, but he was told one or a hundred were the same.
"Let's go. To catch the Minotaur King."
"Yes, sir!"
The mission was,
[35th Floor Mission]
📍 Objective: Defeat 80 Minotaurs of any type and 1 Minotaur King.
⏰ Time Limit: Within 13 hours.
🎯 Completion: All Minotaurs 0/80, Minotaur King 0/1
Oh boy,
That was a lot.
White ones, black ones, spotted ones, small ones, big ones.
Glancing to the side, he saw Kosak looking serious, staring straight ahead.
He seemed incredibly determined.
He wasn't even doing his usual flattery. He drew two daggers, imbued them with sword energy, and muttered to himself,
"Can't be discarded. Must not be discarded. I'll stay to the end. To the end."
What's he talking about?
Who's discarding whom?
Had he suddenly lost his mind?
He wouldn't have bet on sports gambling while watching the soccer game.
*Jingle jingle jingle!*
With the sound of Gyeon dal-rae's bell, the 35th-floor conquest mission began.
Right then!
*Sppppppt!*
Kosak shot out like a bullet.
In an instant, he leaped and slit the throat of a Tier 3 Minotaur, then was already rushing towards another target.
'...Hmm.'
Why is Mr. Kosak acting like that again.
He should hunt safely.
He could just stick behind Gobang and pick up the scraps.
Was he restless from playing for too long?
'Anyway, what should I do?'
Let's hunt some Tier 1 or 2 Minotaurs.
*Zzt!*
Energy shield activated, hand shield and mace drawn.
He felt uneasy under the worried glances his summoned beings were giving him, but.
"Who am I? The talent who succeeded in Shadow Step mid-air!"
Let's quickly kill a few before they stop me.
*Tat!*
*Swat! Swat!*
But then?
"GROOOOAAAR!"
The Minotaur King appeared on the battlefield, wielding a giant axe.
Already?
"Hey, you guys! I just started."
The moment the King appeared, SSR Gobang,
*Squeeeeee!*
Charged with terrifying speed for a body slam.
*Pooomph!*
"Ummmph...",
It was turned into a bloody paste and sent flying.
It even dropped its axe and soared far, far away.
'...'
SSR Gobang truly was balance-breaking.
At least in the 30s.
🏆 Reward: Platinum Badge Awarded
Now all that remained was to check the special reward.
Please!
Yellow police tape was strung around a building in Seoul's entertainment district.
A mass murder had occurred at a shuttered shop called [Royal Traditional Massage].
A mail carrier delivering mail in the morning smelled a strange, fishy odor through the slightly open door.
Thinking it might be the smell of blood, he reported it to the police.
Homicide detectives looked at the crime scene with stunned expressions.
Another mass murder.
How long had it been since that last incident,
"Could it be related to the Smile Cash case? That was a mass murder too."
"Hard to say. There's only one corpse with a cleanly severed neck. Most have pierced hearts, one with a head puncture, and most importantly, there's no ribbon."
But the way the person's neck was sliced so smoothly was a similar point.
"Did we secure CCTV?"
"There's none installed inside the shop. The convenience store CCTV across the street only captured the victims coming and going."
"Ugh, a tough road ahead."
Another unprecedented mass murder had occurred.
The media would swarm like a pack of dogs.
The police would be swept up in criticism.
"Chief."
"Yeah?"
"Take a look at this."
"Huh?"
One detective pulled an item from a victim's body.
"A pistol. Looks like a Tokarev."
"What?"
A Tokarev,
The most widely copied pistol.
Thus, extremely common.
"There's one here too. And here... these guys, they each had one?"
The suspicious items weren't just the pistols.
Military knives, syringes filled with transparent liquid, rope and duct tape, handcuffs for binding...
And that wasn't all.
Photos scattered on the floor.
Close-ups of a specific person's face, about ten of them.
Who were these people now?
"The murder suspect is one thing, but the victims seem even more suspicious."
The detective chief also nodded.
"IDs?"
"They all had them."
"Run a check, quick."
A moment later,
The detective who had contacted headquarters said,
"Chief, this is really strange."
"What is?"
"The IDs are all fake. The real names exist in the database, but the faces don't match."
"...I had a feeling."
Who the hell were these guys?
They didn't feel like Koreans.
Illegal immigrant workers?
No way!
Workers wouldn't carry pistols.
Then organized crime?
That was unlikely too.
He knew all the gangsters in this area.
Domestic or foreign,
The homicide detective chief had a suspicious hunch.
The syringes found on the men's persons.
Most likely drugs, or anesthetics.
'They were planning to kidnap someone.'
Who?
The person in these photos, probably.
They needed to check.
"Contact the higher-ups and request they get in touch with the NIS. Ask them to send an agent quickly."
Time passed,
And an NIS agent arrived at the crime scene.
"Hey, thanks for your hard work. Must be tough. The victims?"
"This way, please."
"Got it."
The moment he entered the room, the smell of blood hit him.
The NIS agent covered his nose with a handkerchief and meticulously observed the corpses, when,
"...Huh?"
His gaze, which had been on the bodies, shifted to the photos scattered on the floor.
Blankly, he approached, picked up one photo, then another, and another...
"Damn it!"
A curse suddenly burst out.
The NIS agent's eyes turned sharp.
His complexion stiffened.
"Chief."
"Yes."
"The media hasn't been notified about this case, right?"
"They shouldn't know yet."
"Then we'll take over this case. It seems to fall under NIS jurisdiction."
And that day.
The National Intelligence Service and the Awakening Management Bureau were thrown into an uproar.