Chapter 148
Chapter 148
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 148
Chapter Title: Chapter 28: Human Hunt (2)
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Lily Evans was someone with ties to the U.S. government that went far beyond mere cooperation.
She was in full collaboration with them.
That meant there was a high chance she’d set aside her duties as a bounty hunter in the name of national interest.
If it benefited America, she might even let someone who needed to die live.
That was why I had excluded her from the list of potential bounty hunters.
But given the unfolding situation, I had no choice but to reach out.
“Long time no see, K.”
As a result, Lily had flown in from CIA headquarters on the East Coast all the way to San Diego on the border with Mexico in just three and a half hours aboard some kind of flagship craft.
Did she take a jet or something?
Considering she was CIA, it wasn’t impossible.
I shook her outstretched hand, freshly reminded of the power of public authority.
“Yeah, it’s been a while.”
Since our first meeting, Lily had never tried to dig into my personal information.
In return, I had treated her with at least the minimum courtesy.
That said, it would be hard to call our relationship good.
If anything, it had consistently remained awkward.
That stalemate was mostly my fault—I’d kept my distance, wary of her.
The problem was her background, which was overwhelmingly vast and intimidating.
I had no reason to get close to someone backed by such burdensome and threatening forces.
Not like with Ethan, where there was a personal bond.
Of course, Lily had made efforts on her end—initiating conversations, showing goodwill, sharing information—to improve things.
But those efforts hadn’t borne fruit.
At this point, Lily and I were like strangers who only exchanged words when necessary.
It probably wasn’t comfortable for her either.
“The person next to you...”
She couldn’t meet my eyes directly and instead turned her attention elsewhere, which said it all.
Lily glanced at the sniper and trailed off.
The sniper let out a deflating chuckle in response.
“Didn’t you see me a couple times in Bihar?”
“You’re the sniper.”
The sniper hadn’t entrusted his identity to the government.
That didn’t mean he avoided standing before Lily through club channels.
I had no idea what gave him that confidence.
He seemed to believe he could evade the government’s dragnet in his own way.
Maybe even that story about his terminally ill kid was a lie.
I didn’t care what tug-of-war he played with the U.S. government, but I didn’t want him falling into their hands.
There was no guarantee he’d find a suitable ally like Ethan had.
Selena, who was in the same boat as Ethan, had to support his bounty hunting to protect her own position.
The sniper’s situation was different.
There was no assurance he could recreate Ethan’s setup if he came under government oversight.
Any disruption to bounty hunting was unacceptable.
I’d need to have a talk with him about this at some point.
I quickly sorted my thoughts and shifted half a step to the side.
Positioning myself slightly between Lily and the sniper.
Then I cut straight to the chase.
“We’ve also found a nearby warehouse storing drugs, and players are involved in the operation.”
I still had no idea why this incident was tied to a bounty mission.
Drugs had been part of human history for hundreds of years.
It didn’t seem like something that warranted a bounty mission.
I mulled over the lingering question while listing out the relevant intel.
Beyond San Diego, where we now gathered, players were evenly distributed across Yuma and El Paso near the border, Laredo, and even as far as New York and Washington.
The number of players in the U.S. was far from small.
The bounty mission targets marked in America totaled eleven.
The remaining seventeen targets were set in missions originating from Mexico.
But oddly, not all of them were in their home country.
In reality, eighteen targets were in the U.S.
The other ten were on Mexican soil.
These specific numbers were details I hadn’t shared via chat.
Perhaps that was why Lily’s expression hardened slightly by the time I finished explaining.
“It looks like players from both countries teamed up to cause trouble. With so many involved and drugs in the mix, I figured it was polite to give advance notice and discuss execution methods.”
The implication was that there were no solutions besides killing them.
Lily glanced back and forth between me and the sniper before asking,
“You seem certain of the number of players tied to this issue. Did you see them with your own eyes?”
It was impossible to keep bounty mission info hidden forever.
“I didn’t see them myself. It’s from system information.”
So I was upfront to a degree.
“...The system? You’re saying the system gave you info on drug trafficking?”
I chose my next words carefully in response to Lily’s question.
To properly filter what to tell her.
I had no intention of revealing that I could communicate with the system.
To convey only the necessary info in an appropriate way, I had to be cautious with my wording.
“Do you remember? The global announcement during the first tutorial.”
A flicker of doubt appeared in Lily’s eyes, which turned to realization within seconds.
“Ah...! Humanity’s survival!”
That global notice, mostly fragmented, had only appeared to beta testers.
When the main server opened, it didn’t show for selected players.
Kim Yul, a first-wave player, and Yang Tae-ho, a second-wave, had confirmed it directly.
After recalling that notice only beta testers had seen, I glanced at the mission window in the corner of my vision and continued.
“The system seems to view this as a threat to humanity’s survival. That’s why it issued the mission to eliminate the targets.”
When I added that this wasn’t the first time, Lily hesitated, glancing between me and the sniper again before asking,
“Why... would it give that mission only to the two of you?”
Technically, it popped up for me, and I shared it with the sniper.
“Who knows...”
I trailed off as if catching my breath, then turned my gaze back to Lily.
I’d once wondered the same.
Why the system left the question mark reward from tutorial #1 only for me.
Why it kept sending me messages, issuing hidden missions, pushing my back.
I’d chewed on the mystery endlessly, pondering it daily.
After so long, one day it clicked.
It judged me as the best option.
Out of the thousands, tens of thousands of players it observed, I was the one it deemed most helpful to its goals.
In other words, it had decided my utility value was the highest among all players.
Instead of spreading investments thin, it went all-in on me.
Since I hadn’t disappointed yet, it retained its capitalist nature.
Of course, I had no intention of meeting its expectations, nor was I thrilled by its one-sided investment.
I was just using it as much as it was using me.
“Probably judged that I’d contribute more to humanity’s survival than someone tied to your side.”
It was a blunt comparison of her situation—bound to America—and mine.
Whether she grasped the meaning or not, Lily’s expression stiffened further.
That only solidified my view that she didn’t fit as a bounty hunter.
“Let me say this upfront. These guys have to die.”
I reiterated that there was no room for compromise on this.
“So figure out the method that minimizes damage on your end.”
Otherwise, I’d launch indiscriminate attacks without regard for America’s situation.
It was a warning—and a threat—I couldn’t have even dreamed of issuing in the past.
To the U.S., my words might have sounded like a terror threat.
In the end, though, Lily brought a solution before the sun even set that day.
There had been attempts at compromise, but since I shot them all down, she had no other choice.
Thanks to that, ten hours after the large-scale bounty mission appeared...
An explosion rocked a building near the San Diego border, escalating the U.S. terror alert to ‘Code Orange (High Threat: Security authorities implement additional precautions for public events; armed forces or law enforcement may coordinate security operations).’
* * *
Lily’s scenario was simple.
Frame the player conflict in San Diego as a clash between drug cartels.
Then cross into Mexico to wrap up the rest of the mission.
Invoke nonexistent civilian casualties to declare war on the cartels and pretend to conduct a sweep operation.
Of course, she asked us to ensure the drug flow into America didn’t drop too sharply in the process.
It was a shocking condition, but upon calm reflection, it made sense.
A sudden drop in domestic drug supply wasn’t simple.
If supply plummeted, prices would skyrocket.
The resulting social issues wouldn’t end with just one.
It meant America’s entire society—not individuals—would bear the fallout from reduced circulation.
If national policy were purely right or wrong, that’d be fine.
But reality wasn’t idealistic.
Pretending unperturbed, I nodded calmly at the terms Lily relayed.
Past midnight, we detonated a bomb of moderate power in an empty building.
The theater of lies began.
Ten minutes after the first explosion.
The sniper, Lily, and I waited in full gear, mana gathered tightly in our cores.
“Looks like they’re not coming out.”
The sniper muttered beside me.
I glanced from the nearby flames to the map.
‘Four in San Diego.’
None of them were moving from their positions.
Terror alert raised, police deployed, nearby civilians evacuating—and yet, they acted oppositely.
‘Map’s not 3D, so not certain, but...’
The players in question seemed to have entered the tunnel used for smuggling drugs instead of evacuating.
“They must be confident.”
Even if a real terror attack happened, they probably thought they wouldn’t be at risk.
“Well, if they stay put, that’s fine by us.”
I nodded readily at the sniper’s words.
“Civilians seem mostly clear. Shall we move in?”
“Don’t kill them right away.”
“I know, I know.”
We’d already agreed: lure the others in, then take them all at once.
Fighting without location limits would rack up property damage in San Diego, so no choice.
The sniper would enter first, push just enough to force a support request.
‘Targeted as bounty mission objectives at the same time in the same area—they must have their own network.’
With game chat for communication sans modern tech, they could form networks faster and freer.
Being in similar regions at the same time was no coincidence.
We’d exploit that: draw them to one spot, trap them in a barrier, and wipe them out.
That’s why we picked the one in the center of the scattered group first.
“Alright, then...”
The moment the sniper pressed down his beanie and took a single step—
BOOM!
An explosion roared from a building three blocks from our position.
It was another target’s warehouse, positionally.
The sniper and I, who had turned toward the sudden blast, shifted our gazes to Lily.
She shook her head urgently from a step behind us.
She didn’t know about it either; it wasn’t part of the plan.
I checked the explosion site again.
‘What the hell?’
Amid the flames blooming with the blast, a human shadow leaped up.
But the map’s marked target wasn’t moving.
The meaning was obvious.
‘Another player.’
A third player, unrelated to the bounty mission, had appeared.
Goddamn system