The Price of Pressure
Word of it spread quickly. Lee Gyu-hwan, the A-Class magic-type hunter who served as Andersen Guild’s executive chief, moved the moment the message reached him. The instant he appeared at the guild office, he headed straight for the guild leader’s office.
“Executive Chief? What brings you here at this hour?”
The executive hunter stationed outside the guild leader’s office narrowed the distance between them and asked.
“Is the guild leader inside?”
“Yes. He came in five minutes ago.”
It was early, but fortunately, An Seong-jin had apparently arrived earlier than usual today.
“The guild leader told us to restrict access to the office. Please wait a moment...”
“This is urgent and important. If you don’t want to be blamed for something stupid later, get out of the way now.”
At Gyu-hwan’s warning, the executive hunter stepped aside without another word. To him, Gyu-hwan was also a direct superior.
“Guild leader!”
Without even knocking, Gyu-hwan shoved the door open. An Seong-jin and the young secretary who had been pressed close beside him jerked apart in a hurry. Seong-jin looked faintly disappointed, while the secretary seemed relieved.
“You may leave.”
“Yes, Guild Leader.”
The secretary checked her disheveled clothes and hurried out of the office. It was not hard to guess what had been happening here during the five minutes since the guild leader arrived, but Gyu-hwan shook his head. There was a more important matter at hand.
“Executive Chief. What is so important that you barge in without knocking at this hour?”
Perhaps because he had been interrupted in the middle of a pleasant moment, there was a hint of irritation in Seong-jin’s voice. Gyu-hwan did not take it to heart. He knew perfectly well that Seong-jin was greedy, lustful, and had no talent for taking care of his own people.
“The teams we sent to the Wraith side last night suffered near-total losses, and four of them were taken prisoner.”
“What?”
“The Wraith side sent a message. I don’t know how they found out, but they seem to have figured out that it was our order.”
Gyu-hwan spoke with a dark expression. He even wondered whether they had tortured the four prisoners into revealing it. They had all been trained to endure torture, but if the Wraith side had skilled interrogators, there was no guarantee the information could be contained.
“A message? So... what did they say?”
“You may not like it, but... I’ll relay it without softening a word.”
“Go ahead.”
When Seong-jin nodded, Gyu-hwan opened his mouth with a hardened face.
“‘If you want to see the prisoners alive, hold a press conference and officially admit that you sent out the executive team. If you refuse, you’d better prepare your popcorn and cola and start getting the lid ready for the coffin.’”
There was no profanity mixed in. But it was a threat so blunt that even a fool could understand it, and it provoked Seong-jin, who had a hair-trigger temper, beyond measure.
“You’re saying Wraith, still just messing around in the Bronze tier, is threatening our Andersen in the Silver tier?”
Andersen was a mid-sized guild even among Silver-tier guilds.
“Guild leader?”
“Ridiculous.”
The atmosphere was turning ugly. Gyu-hwan took a cautious step toward Seong-jin and spoke carefully.
“Guild leader, you need to judge this calmly. We sent thirty men and failed. They’re clearly hiding something we didn’t account for.”
Gyu-hwan was right, but Seong-jin, already worked up, could not hear it properly.
“Summon the entire executive team at once and prepare a second strike.”
“What about my men who were captured?”
Gyu-hwan asked carefully, watching Seong-jin rage.
“Executive Chief. I know you care about your subordinates more than most, but sometimes sacrifices are necessary, and when that happens, executive hunters are the ones who should step forward for the guild first.”
He meant to abandon the prisoners and launch a one-sided assault. Gyu-hwan’s heart ached, but as the guild leader, he had no choice but to obey Seong-jin’s order.
“Understood. I’ll summon the executive hunters on standby.”
“Do you not understand the situation? This is the time to go all out. Suspend every other assignment and make this matter the top priority!”
“But that would paralyze some of our critical work.”
It was said that the higher the tier of the guild, the more secrets and ugliness it carried. Andersen was middle-tier even within Silver, which meant it had plenty of hidden business, and most of it was handled by the executive division.
“I don’t care. Right now, killing these bastards is the priority.”
As Seong-jin showed no sign of calming down, Gyu-hwan shook his head.
Kang Hyun-jun... I don’t know you, but if this was intentional...
The thought had barely crossed his mind when a chill ran through his entire body.
You’re a truly terrifying man.
They had touched someone who should never have been made an enemy.
*
“Kraaaah!”
The swung sword sliced across the abdomen of the Lizardman shaman. A scream tore from its throat, and red blood sprayed into the air. A nearby Lizardman ironclad soldier roared and thrust its spear forward, but it was blocked by the shield Hyun-jun had raised.
“Holy Spear!”
So-jin’s voice rang out from behind him. A spear formed of white mana shot forward and pierced straight through the ironclad soldier’s chest.
“Guild leader! One of the knights is heading your way!”
It was Han Su. He had been fighting two Lizardman knights, both A-Class monsters, and it seemed he had lost track of one of them. So-jin, who lacked real combat experience, looked startled by the sudden situation and drew her sword, but Hyun-jun remained calm.
“I’ll handle it.”
Keeping his upper body covered by the shield, Hyun-jun charged toward the Lizardman knight.
Clang.
Sensing Hyun-jun’s approach as it closed in on So-jin, the Lizardman knight twisted its body. The heavy scrape of iron armor rang out.
“Haah!”
“Kraaaah!”
With a fierce shout, Hyun-jun’s thrust sword slid past the Lizardman knight’s blade and drove into its heart. The knight screamed and collapsed. Hyun-jun pulled the sword free from the corpse and shouted,
“Finished!”
“We’re done here too! All minions eliminated!”
Han Su’s voice came from the side.
“An A-Class monster, cut down in a single blow...?”
“That’s our guild leader for you.”
The voices of admiration from the two B-Class magic hunters providing support from the rear drifted faintly over. Hyun-jun slipped the sword back into place with a slight smile at the corner of his mouth, and Han Su instructed the porter accompanying them to loot the mana stones.
While the porter collected the mana stones, Hyun-jun, Han Su, and the other members of the guild raid team took a short break to drink something and catch their breath.
“Looting complete,” the porter reported.
“Break’s over. We’ll keep moving.”
Hyun-jun said it, and the hunters of the assault team formed up again. The raid had already progressed a long way, so before long they reached the giant iron door leading to the boss room.
“We’ll rest for thirty minutes, then continue.”
Since the boss fight was the most important battle in a dungeon raid, Hyun-jun gave the team a little more time to rest before opening the door.
“We’ll proceed.”
The thirty-minute rest disappeared quickly, and the boss room assault began. The boss was a Lizardman Elite Knight, classified as an upper-elite monster even among A-Class foes, but they hunted it down cleanly without losing a single person. Two were injured, but So-jin’s powerful healing restored them quickly.
After the boss fell, they used the activated warp gate to move outside the dungeon. It had been an A-Class dungeon, but the clear was not difficult.
“It was easier than I expected... Should we schedule more A-Class dungeon raids?”
“I’d like that too, but starting from A-Class, the danger level rises, and the gear and mana stones that drop are much better, so reservation competition between guilds is fierce. We only managed to secure this one by the skin of our teeth.”
“Ah... is that so?”
At Han Su’s explanation, Hyun-jun nodded with a regretful expression. Coming from an F-Class hunter background, he knew little about higher-tier dungeons. He had begun researching them recently, but there had not been enough time to learn everything.
“I’ll handle the settlement process.”
“You will?”
Hyun-jun smiled faintly at Han Su’s offer.
“Yes. It’s not difficult.”
“Then... I’d appreciate it.”
He accepted the kindness. Hyun-jun was busy because he still had to face an investigation from the Special Police Bureau over today’s attack on Andersen. So-jin had also been cleared as A-Class after her assessment, and while she had improved a lot with time, she was still confused by her sudden awakening, so she needed rest.
Hyun-jun returned to the guild office with So-jin by car. So-jin trudged weakly toward the executive lounge, and Hyun-jun waited in the guild leader’s office for the investigator the Special Police Bureau would send. He did not feel the need to use the reception room just for an investigator.
The settlement and distribution are complete. The amount to be deposited into the guild leader’s account is 1.3 billion won.
Han Su’s message arrived first. If a raid team brought in a payout large enough for 130 million won to be distributed to an individual, the results had been decent.
“Guild leader. The Special Police Bureau investigator has arrived.”
An employee from the secretary’s office carefully opened the door and reported. Hyun-jun did not remember the name, so instead of answering, he nodded and motioned for him to come in. Soon the door opened and a man in uniform walked in.
“I’m here from the Special Police Bureau. You received the call, right?”
“Yes. Please, have a seat.”
The two sat facing each other. The investigation did not last long and was little more than a formal procedure. In the middle, the investigator did ask whether there were any suspected backing forces, but Hyun-jun replied that nothing came to mind. Judging by the investigator’s attitude, even if he pointed the finger at Andersen Guild, the Special Police Bureau would not move properly anyway.
“The investigation is complete. There shouldn’t be any issue with classifying it as self-defense. Ah, and... if there are any survivors, please hand them over to us. We’ll send them to the relevant department and process them.”
“Thank you. But they were all killed.”
“Is that so? Understood.”
After the investigator left, Tae-min came in.
“You called for me?”
“Did you investigate the matter I asked about?”
“Yes. Just as you expected, Guild Leader, it seems someone is applying pressure to the Special Police Bureau.”
Since the era of dungeon raids arrived, public safety in South Korea had deteriorated severely. Along with that, state power weakened, corruption spread, and guilds and top-tier hunters filled the vacuum.
“Did you find out who it is?”
At Hyun-jun’s question, Tae-min lowered his head.
“I’m sorry. With our intelligence network, it was difficult even to confirm that ‘pressure’ existed. But one thing is certain: it’s not Andersen.”
“Well, a guild that’s merely mid-sized even in the Silver tier wouldn’t be enough to pressure the Special Police Bureau.”
“At least a Gold-tier guild would have to be involved. And even that guild wouldn’t be the final hand behind it. A far bigger hidden force is controlling the board.”
The problem was that he did not know who that was.
“How is Andersen responding?”
“No response. In fact, they’re mobilizing their executive division.”
“Then we’ve been polite enough... It’s time to get vicious. The prisoners still haven’t opened their mouths, have they?”
“Yes. We’ve been asking nicely so far, but I think it’s time to use more forceful methods.”
“Good. Leave the executive chief to handle it.”
Enemies did not deserve mercy. A sharp gleam entered Hyun-jun’s eyes.
“I’ll head home for today. Executive Chief, you should get some rest too.”
“Thank you.”
Back at home, Hyun-jun fell into sleep as if he had been knocked out. And he dreamed.