Chapter 18
Chapter 18
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Devour the Shadows
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Twitch.
Excluding Gong Cheolwoo, whose head alone remained twitching.
Sshhh.
Silence descended upon the Teraco building.
"Captain! Praise me! Praise!"
Enbi, who had appeared out of nowhere, shook her two daggers dripping with blood as she spoke.
"Enbi, don't act spoiled around the Captain."
Yun Seung-ah, appearing behind her, glared at Enbi.
"Hing."
Just as Enbi started to retreat with a disappointed look.
Stroke.
Go Yohan gently patted Enbi's head.
Even though it was just that.
"Hehehe."
Enbi grinned triumphantly, laughing in satisfaction.
It was right around the halfway mark of the five minutes Yun Seung-ah had mentioned.
He had never intended to use the full five minutes in the first place.
"The rescued ones have been gathered on the first floor."
After finishing her report, Yun Seung-ah reached out her hand.
Hum.
What appeared was a staff adorned with a crow's head.
[Drows's Staff]
[Legendary]
The item that had become Yun Seung-ah's.
Its rank was none other than Legendary.
Fewer than three Legendary items had been confirmed to exist worldwide.
With no level restrictions for equipping them, they possessed power befitting their name.
Thud.
It was already a proven fact that even a level 1 player with a single Legendary item could surpass a ranker.
If the owner of a Legendary item ever put it up for sale on the market.
-Its value was incalculable.
It was self-evident that it would require not mere trillions of won, but the budget of an entire nation.
Enbi's two daggers were the same.
[Sidus's Dagger]
[Legendary]
[Amdus's Dagger]
[Legendary]
Treasures whose value could not be measured.
That was when it happened.
Whoooong!
The Drows's Staff in Yun Seung-ah's hand emitted a brilliant light and began to exude devastating magical power.
"Seriously, the sheer amount of mana is insane."
Enbi muttered as if jealous, watching the mana pouring out.
Flash!
With the light, everything around them had changed.
Go Yohan, Yun Seung-ah, Kim Sion.
The destruction wrought upon the Teraco Guild by the three of them seemed undone, the building restored to perfect condition.
"......!"
Even Gong Cheolwoo, left with only his head, was stunned.
As if time had been rewound.
But Go Yohan's expression showed little change.
"Greed's nearby, right?"
No sooner had Go Yohan spoken.
"You called, Captain?"
A girl who looked about six years old appeared, rubbing her sleepy eyes.
She seemed to have just been sleeping, dressed in pajamas.
"Sorry for waking you when you were tired."
"No worries. Yaaawn."
Soon after, others began to appear one by one.
Shin Seulhye, who had taken on the role of Greed's nanny and cared for her, the Moon Hunter who had once lost both eyes.
And Kang In, who had lost both legs, appeared alongside her.
"You called?"
Shin Seulhye and Kang In's appearances had changed dramatically.
Their looks had been altered by Go Yohan's intervention in the past.
Hummm.
But the magnitude of the power emanating from them.
Sshhh.
Their refined auras were so potent that even top-tier rankers wouldn't dare underestimate them.
"There's work to be done."
Go Yohan said.
"Devour the shadows."
*
*
*
"Devour the shadows."
Go Yohan said.
No one responded to the cryptic words, as if grasping at clouds.
"You have to accept it now."
In front of the Teraco Guild, Go Yohan spoke.
-The damn things keep crawling out.
He had already purged those lurking in Seoul's shadows multiple times.
Yet they reemerged, eventually even meddling with the evil species.
"That the shadows can't be erased."
Cockroaches that reappeared no matter how many times they were wiped out.
In Travania, he had fought them countless times.
Even cowering in fear of Mikael, hiding and keeping low.
'Somehow.'
They kept resurfacing, spreading poison across the continent.
So then.
"Start with the Seoul area. How long will it take to handle them all?"
He would have to devour and bring them under control.
So that when the evil species eventually raised its head, he could uproot it from the source.
"A year enough?"
Go Yohan said.
Given the nature of the shadows, subjugating and controlling everything in a short time would be difficult.
They boasted tenacious vitality, like Gong Cheolwoo reduced to just a head yet still clinging to life.
"Three months."
Greed said.
"Three months is plenty. Yaaawn."
Three months.
"In half a year, we can have everything in Korea under our control."
Greed said, blinking her big eyes.
If anyone else had said it, it would have been dismissed as madness.
"We'll need someone to step up as the representative."
There was no reason to dismiss Greed.
She was only about six years old, but no one knew her true age.
Especially those with talents coveted by archdemons; in becoming vessels for demons, they had exploded and expanded their potential.
"I'll do it."
Kang In replied.
"It was already in the plan. Just waiting for your approval, Captain. Yaaawn."
Greed grabbed Go Yohan's hand and said.
"Teraco, Erosion, Sanyong. The biggest guilds in Seoul..."
Greed's eyes gleamed.
"Change the heads, do it quietly, and we can swallow them up fast. Teraco has stakes in the other guilds' businesses, so..."
Greed squatted down, grinning shamelessly at Gong Cheolwoo's lone head.
"With this guy, there won't be any big issues."
Poke, poke.
She treated Gong Cheolwoo's head like a toy.
Lift.
Greed picked up the head.
"Take good care of it, okay?"
"Grk, gr... grrr...."
"Greed, first find out where he got the seeds from and how far he spread them."
"Yeah. Sis, you go first."
She handed the head to Yun Seung-ah as if yielding it.
That was when the general situation had been sorted.
"...Huh?"
Go Yohan suddenly spoke with a dumbfounded expression.
"Why is that here?"
Out the window.
A gaze hiding between buildings, watching the Teraco building.
"Haa."
It was Go Minji.
Had she tailed him?
No.
If there had been a tail, he would have noticed.
Just a coincidence, then.
"I was just about to report it...."
Yun Seung-ah stepped forward apologetically.
"The Association asked your sister for a small favor."
With that, Yun Seung-ah moved ahead.
"I'll buy some time, so Captain, you should slip away."
"Haa. Useless as always. Fine, handle it."
Go Yohan shook his head and proceeded.
*
*
*
"......"
Go Minji watched Teraco cautiously.
"...See anything?"
She wasn't alone.
With her was Kim Dayeon from the Korean Player Association's Investigation Department.
Go Minji and she were elementary school classmates, and Kim Dayeon had joined the Association and entered investigations.
"Hey, you think I'm some Lucas Schmidt or what?"
Lucas Schmidt, in the world ranking upper ranks.
He was famous not just for his ranking, but for his specialized tracking skills and instincts.
Rumor had it he could grasp the truth just by looking.
"...We have to figure it out."
Kim Dayeon said in a heavy voice.
"Over 40 people reported missing already. We searched every Teraco business site, but nothing...."
Right before them, the Teraco Guild house, as if the very embodiment of splendor.
"They're in there. If we miss this time too... we might never find those people."
"But why ask me of all people?"
Go Minji said irritably.
"...Damn bastards have leaked info every time we've tried an op elsewhere. We just struck out."
That's why they needed someone reliable like Go Minji, who was even in the American rankings.
"Everyone here is trustworthy. If not today, it's really over. Please, Minji. I'll buy you that bag you wanted."
"Crazy bitch."
Go Minji let out a small laugh at Kim Dayeon's words.
Player salaries at the Association were insane, but so were hers.
It was just a desperate plea.
"Get ready."
Go Minji said.
"Whatever it takes, we hit today."
That was when.
Twitch.
Go Minji shuddered and suddenly dashed out.
In both hands, she wielded a greatsword larger than herself.
Screeech!
With a sound like tearing the air.
Baaang!
Her speed broke the sound barrier, creating a sonic boom.
It was Go Minji's strike, said to cleave even a B-rank ogre monster in one blow.
Hum.
But her greatsword was caught in an invisible barrier, unable to advance further.
What appeared before her was a woman wearing a crow mask that seemed conjured by magic.
Long hair flowing from beneath the mask, and even through her loose clothes, an explosive voluptuousness that was evident.
Twitch.
The greatsword, lodged in what looked like a barrier, wouldn't budge.
'Where the hell did this woman come from?'
Go Minji was genuinely shocked.
Even the guild master of the guild she joined for US activities couldn't block her strike like this.
"I know you're looking for the missing people."
Then, a voice like jade beads flowed from between the crow mask.
Step.
She carefully retreated.
Boom!
Only then did Go Minji's greatsword slash through empty air, slamming into the ground.
"Minji!"
Kim Dayeon and her subordinates rushed over.
Grip!
But they were restrained by the crow mask's outstretched hand, unable to move.
"We've gathered them in the alley behind. You can take them now."
As the crow mask finished speaking and turned.
"...Who are you?"
Go Minji said to the crow mask, Yun Seung-ah.
"...Your voice sounds familiar."
But.
Ripple.
The crow mask had already vanished.
"......"
Go Minji stared blankly at where Yun Seung-ah had disappeared for a long while.
In the meantime.
"We found them!"
Kim Dayeon's subordinate reported discovering the abducted people.