Title of the Chapter
Three days ago.
Tess-hyung asked me.
“But what about the customs guys in charge of smuggling?”
“We have to catch them first. Everyone involved in customs procedures. Without exception. Arrest them all at once. We can’t let any slip through. Probably more important than catching the smugglers themselves.”
Smugglers trying to flee to China, sure. But the ones actually running the smuggling operation? They were deeply rooted in Korea, like malignant state power—fixed spies, nothing more.
“How?”
“Here’s the list. Customs officials, port officials, customs inspectors, surveillance staff. Everyone who had even the slightest involvement in past smuggling operations.”
“What? How did you… but there are so many?”
“Anyone who had even a little bit of involvement is included. The ones with stars next to their names were directly involved. They absolutely have to be arrested.”
“But how did you even get this kind of information?”
I shrugged.
“Hansik and the kids hacked into it.”
At my words, Tess-hyung met Hansik’s eyes.
Hansik shrugged and shouted “Yay!”, while Tess-hyung let out a soft chuckle.
Guess guys just get closer while fighting.
“You hacked into the Customs Bureau?”p>
“Doosik… after this is over, you’re going straight into Hunterpol.”
“Why?! I don’t wanna!”
“Who else is gonna do it if not a guy like you?”
“I just don’t like that kind of thing.”
“If a guy like you becomes a criminal, it’s really terrifying.”
Why am I even talking about this?
It was one of the reasons Tess-hyung was obsessed with me. What if I stepped into crime? When you think about it, the skeletons hacking is illegal, but…
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to become a criminal.”
“Sigh. Anyway, keep going.”
I continued the story I had paused.
Actually, I hadn’t gotten to the main point yet.
“Not just the Customs Bureau. We hit the telecom companies and port authorities too. The first port where smuggling happened wasn’t Mokpo.”
“Telecom companies? And ports? Wait, then the smuggling spotted at Busan Port five years ago…”
“Exactly. The spam texts about smuggling started then. Bae Hyeongsin received the message, went to Busan Port to smuggle, and ran away.”
“Then according to what you said…”
“Behind Bae Hyeongsin, there’s something much bigger. This list is just the beginning. Figuring out how deep the involvement really goes is your job, hyung.”
At my words, Tess-hyung slammed his forehead.
“There could even be those kind of people in Hunterpol? Five years ago, if it weren’t for internal information, it would’ve been impossible for Bae Hyeongsin to successfully escape. He broke through a Hunterpol and Hunter Army net of over 500 people.”
At those words, a chill ran through me.
“You mean Hunterpol… can’t be trusted?”
Hunterpol was part of my plan.
Because I had to treat each of them as at least as powerful as Park Wonchang. To take them all out at once, Hunterpol level was needed.
“… I can’t guarantee it.”
“Then what do we do?”
“I have no idea how deep the roots go. But don’t worry. I have a completely trustworthy line.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah. Even if it’s not me, anyone who would make Bae Hyeongsin tremble is fine.”
Then Tess-hyung called someone.
“Hey, how are you, Director?”
Tess-hyung pulled the phone away from his ear, and a furious man’s roar came out of the speaker.
“You bastard! Where the hell are you?!”
Tess-hyung played it cool.
“Why are you so angry? Your blood pressure is high.”
“It went up because of you, damn it! Come in and surrender already, you crazy bastard. I’ll make sure you don’t end up in prison.”
“Surrender? What surrender? Did I commit a crime? Even if the director thinks I killed Park Wonchang, you’ll be really disappointed.”
“Damn it. I know what you did. Dark energy? Whatever! Get your ass here now!”
“I was already planning to. But you should be promoted, director. Haven’t you heard? Your sister-in-law is having her fifth baby? You should be satisfied as a hunter with good skills, but the Busan branch director of Hunterpol?”
“What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“There’s big news. This means immediate special promotion for the director.”
“Hrm… really? What is it?”
……
The call lasted a long time.
Tess-hyung and the person he was talking to, who seemed to be the Busan Hunterpol director, had a deep bond, and there was clearly a strong network between them.
After hanging up, Tess-hyung said.
“B-class and above. Including me, twenty-four people in total.”
“That’s too few.”
“But that much power is enough to clear even a C-class gate.”
“Hmm… still uneasy.”
“Just trust me.”
So I prepared.
Sub-operation: Skeleton Lupin.
* * *
Back to the present.
Ku ku ku—
Someone knocked twice on a container.
“Twelve hours. Don’t move.”
The rats inside held their breath at the voice from outside, and each one sat or curled up in a comfortable position.
The narrow space had already been stripped of smartphones. Boring hours passed without a single word of conversation. One by one, they started dozing off or snoring.
But there were the helmet-wearing guys squatting here and there in the container.
They exchanged silent signals with hand gestures.
“Operation start?”
“Oki doki.”
They quietly stood up and stretched, then reached into the smugglers’ bags.
With a light touch,
Swoosh.
The bags disappeared.
The guy who had been sleeping on a pillow suddenly sat up with a jolt, head on the empty pillow, and soon.
“Eh, what?! Where did they go?! My bag! Eh? Eh?”
Shouts echoed from other places too.
“Hey, fuck! What?! My bag!”
“What?! Who took it?!”
“You?!”
“Mine’s gone too!”
p>
It felt like they had been possessed by ghosts.
Even as the smugglers wailed, the helmet guys acted as if they hadn’t heard a thing and continued what they were doing. Whenever their hands touched something, the bags vanished—backpacks, golf bags, instrument cases… anything disappeared.
In less than a minute.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
The culprits were instantly identified.
Those guys from the beginning had been suspicious.
The helmet guys.
They had boarded the smuggling container after confirming their marks, so it was certain they were from the Night Fang faction.
“Hey, helmet! What the hell are you?!”
“You thief bastard!”
The smuggling relation guy had told them not to move, but what was taken was everything valuable they had.
Money, of course, but more importantly, equipment too.
The container started making a loud noise.
Shhh.
At that moment,
The helmet guys pointed their index fingers to their own mouths. The guy who had farted was angry, they meant silence.
“Don’t move.”
A message had been sent by someone they guessed was a smuggling relation guy.
The smugglers’ victims, seeing their calm demeanor, momentarily thought it was a misunderstanding. They froze, let go of the collars they had grabbed.
Then,
Swoosh— swoosh—
In just five seconds after their brains short-circuited, the helmet thieves resumed action, and more victims appeared.
“You bastards! What are you?!”
They had finally come back to their senses. With their entire fortune gone in an instant, there was no way they wouldn’t be furious.
Eventually, the ones who had come to their senses attacked the bag thieves.
Kwuuang—
“Give me back my bag, you bastards!”
With a smack,
Pasu— disappeared.
“W-what?! Where did they go?! Who are you, helmet guy?!”
“Yay!”
Pew! Pasu…
As the bag thieves attacked the helmet guys, the narrow container turned into a battlefield in an instant.
Pasu— pasu—
The bag thieves, terrified of attack, turned to dust and vanished. When the helmet of a subdued thief was removed,
“Yay!”
Skeletons came out.
“Uwa, shit! Startled me!”
Perok—
Pasu…
The thieves disappeared.
The narrow container became a gathering of bag thieves’ victims.
“My items!”
“Fuck!”
“What the hell is going on?!”
“It… it was definitely a skeleton.”
The bag thieves, who were boiling with rage, started making a scene. Eventually they pounded on the container,
Clang!
Clang clang!
Smuggling or not,
Their entire fortunes had been stolen.
The ones who had lost it pounded on the container and called out to the smuggling relation guys.
“Hey! Is anyone there?!”
“Thieves took our equipment!”
“Hey! Can’t you hear?!”
Of course, they couldn’t smash the container and escape. These guys were all wanted criminals or felons with reasons for overseas travel disqualification.
They had no choice but to rely on the Night Fang guys who led the smuggling. But there was no sign from them. Even pressing their ears to the container, they could only hear the sea.
But is this really a ship?
The bag thieves’ victims gradually felt,
Their chests tightening,
Their scalps burning,
And their blood turning cold,
And eventually lost their reason.
“You bastards!!”
Kwuaang!!
The container wall burst open with one furious kick from the most irritable guy. From there, wall after wall opened in sequence.
Sunlight poured in.
It was morning.
They, who had grown used to darkness, were momentarily blinded by the strong light, and the light-adapted eyes saw,
“Whoa, the bastards here all got beaten up.”
The smugglers.
The waiting Hunterpol agents surveyed their faces.
“Kim Taesu detective, you really did it in one go?”
“Nice to meet you, Cho Soon-du.”
“Yoo Cheol-young! Hahaha, you were here too?”
The Hunterpol cars spread out wide around the container.
The blockade spread wide.
“Th-this is a trap!”
“We’re tricked!”
“Kim Taesu!”
“Haha…”
In the very front of them was one man.
Busan Hunterpol director, Chief Superintendent Lee Won-tae shouted.
“Take them down!”
At his one word, the Hunterpol agents who had built the encirclement all poured skills toward them.
Chrrr—
Even Kim Taesu standing on a police car, swinging his fishing rod, was the same. The fishing line, like a living snake, wriggled and split into two, four, five parts, hooking the smugglers’ bodies here and there,
Pa-ji-ji-ji-
“Krrrrk.”
The high-voltage current stunned them, turning them into roasted meat and paralyzed. With the help of other Hunterpol agents, the smugglers were gradually subdued.
No items. Sneak attack was futile.
But they weren’t to be taken lightly.
Some were stronger than Park Wonchang.
Among them, one with dyed-white hair reached out and activated a skill. Blue flames flared from his fingertips and spread to the surroundings,
“Explosive Flame Lance!”
“Dodge!”
The flying thing was hit by a police car,
Pew!
With a huge explosion, it burst.
Black mist rose around another smuggler, and the ‘Dark Specter’ was summoned, covering the Hunterpol agents. The agents were trapped in the specter’s illusion and attacked their allies in confusion.
“Ouch.”
“What are you doing?!”
“You bastard! Are you crazy?!”
“Snap out of it!!”
With Kim Taesu’s shout, the fishing line moved like lightning, piercing the centers of each specter, and pa-ji-ji. The specters vanished.
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
As panic set in, the smugglers changed strategy and tried to flee. But then.
“Khm… you already reached China?”
Even in this chaos, the giant ship’s A-class tanker, Cho Chiyong, who had been snoring away with his head on the deck, got up groggily.
Western-style super-obese build.
He took off his blindfold.
With a frown, Cho Chiyong.
A moment later,
“Ni hao?”
He took off his headset too,
“Wo shu, han geul. Arigato China.”
* * *
My role was over.
Now the cleanup was left to Tess-hyung and the Hunterpol.
“Too sweet, haha, this is going to rot.”
I stole the smugglers’ bags.
Tigriel’s Bundle sipped and filled up. As spoils,
[(Rare) Hermit’s Ring] entered [(Legend) Tigriel’s Bundle].
[(Rare) Wind Feather] entered [(Legend) Tigriel’s Bundle].
[(Unique) Jade Fang] entered [(Legend) ….
These were there.
And more?
At least rare! Unique, and even legend grades! [(Legend) Holy Sentinel’s Spear], [(Legend) Sky Shield], [(Legend) Sword of Hatred] ……
[When a Skeleton Warrior dies, his stats are transferred to an adjacent Skeleton Warrior.]
[When a Skeleton Warrior dies, his stats are transferred to an adjacent Skeleton Warrior.]
Of course, because we were found early, we couldn’t take everything. But we took most of it.
“Sweet. So sweet.”
After all, hunter combat power is decided by gear. The combat power of the disarmed smugglers was clearly reduced right there.
Even over 400 levels, Park Wonchang hadn’t beaten the last skeleton warrior, 55th (not the last anymore) without items, right?
“With power weakened like this, we should be able to suppress them easily, right?”
Of course, there were those with spatial inventory… but there we couldn’t do much.
Still,
“Hehe, shall I open the bundle?”
Tigriel’s Bundle was full.
Clink clink.
---