The Purpose of the Terror?

The wire Jeong-Hoon fired coiled tight around the Nova's arm.

The moment it began to yank him in, the man locked into a contest of raw strength.

He was a C-class with monstrous physical power. The judgment came from pure confidence: even against a hunter who'd been at the party, a sudden tug-of-war was winnable.

Against Jeong-Hoon it was a spectacular miscalculation.

Jeong-Hoon did not fight the pull. He let it take him.

No—he flew.

"How are you moving exactly the way I want?"

"!!!!!"

Looking down at him with open disdain, Jeong-Hoon sliced through the air and put a bullet between the man's eyes.

Bang!

The Nova locked in the strength contest was subdued in an instant, yet Jeong-Hoon never stopped. Momentum carried him straight into the heart of the remaining Novas, and he landed among them.

Startled by the sudden intrusion, the Novas started to attack—then froze.

Jeong-Hoon stood right in their middle. Any strike risked catching their own comrades. They could not move.

To their senses he was unmistakably Non-Awakened, a target for exclusion, yet the thought of catching fellow Novas in the crossfire stayed their hands.

Still, they had him surrounded. The moment they reached to seize him, Jeong-Hoon raised his dagger and slashed the nearest outstretched hand.

The wounded Nova screamed and staggered back.

At the cry, panic rippled through the rest; they scrambled to unleash their powers.

…As expected.

They fell apart over something this small. Satisfied that nothing had changed, Jeong-Hoon stamped the floor, fired another wire, and launched himself clear of the encirclement.

Nova—the radical faction that dreamed of a world for Awakened alone and carried out merciless terror to get it.

Hidden beneath that terrifying reputation was a simple truth most people never learned: the majority of them had almost no real combat experience.

Drunk on the pride of being the "new humanity" and on their overwhelming power, they only ever swung that power around. They were idiots who had never properly imagined what it felt like to be attacked themselves.

Slash!

The price of that stupidity arrived in a heartbeat.

"Hey, Chairman Lee. Are you sure you're a Non-Awakened?"

While the Novas flailed in panic because of Jeong-Hoon, Si-Eun had already accelerated through them and claimed their lives. She stared at him with pure disbelief.

Awakened recognized Awakened. By that law, Jeong-Hoon was Non-Awakened. Seals existed, yes, but the feel of him was unmistakably ordinary.

Yet his combat ability was B-class—no, high enough that even an A-class who dropped their guard would die.

"You already know the answer."

He shrugged. With Si-Eun joining him the situation had become far more manageable. He walked past the bodies without a second glance.

Strangely, he felt nothing.

Not revulsion at the act of killing, not guilt, and not even the faintest thrill. Only the quiet sense that he had done what needed doing.

"Everyone, you can come out now."

The Novas were finished, so Jeong-Hoon called to the staff who had been trailing behind. The hotel employees crept out of hiding, looking sheepish.

"Th-thank you, Chairman. This should have been our job…"

"No. I have no interest in using people who can't fight as meat shields. And you're not even Lumen staff."

They had half expected Si-Eun—an S-class hunter—to protect them as a matter of course. Watching a Non-Awakened businessman step forward and eliminate the Novas himself left them thoroughly off-balance.

Jeong-Hoon, for his part, had no desire to drag them along either. He simply could not abandon them, so they stayed.

"This knife really is something, though."

Si-Eun turned the dagger he had given her over in her hands, deliberately cutting through the awkward air between Jeong-Hoon and the employees.

"Didn't you handle it last time as well?"

He had issued weapons before they entered the sealed barrier zone, just in case. She should have felt it then, yet she spoke as if this were the first time.

"Back then I only looked at it. This time I used it in real combat."

She murmured, savoring the cutting feel she had missed before. Jeong-Hoon shook his head.

"If you like it that much, keep it."

"What? Are you sure?"

"It's the kind of self-defense item you can buy at Shine Mall. Nothing special."

It was no hidden family artifact—just a titanium dagger. The offer came easily.

"Solid titanium with a matte edge. This is actually pretty expensive."

The moment she said "expensive," Jeong-Hoon flinched.

Si-Eun was an S-class hunter. If she called something expensive, it truly was. His old commoner's instincts slammed on the brakes.

"I-is it?"

"Yeah. Not quite this good, but I own a few titanium pieces myself."

"I never checked the price tag."

"Does a price tag even mean anything to the Chairman?"

The gentle jab almost made him insist that it did—until they reached the hotel exit he had been aiming for. Combat readiness snapped back into place.

Working with Si-Eun, they had reached the exit without major trouble. Yet the interior had been locked down hard; the exit would be sealed just as thoroughly. In a terror incident they would have to blockade every way out for the sake of their manifesto and any later negotiations. He had expected a messy fight.

"This is…?"

The sight of the hotel entrance left him blank.

No one stood there.

Only carefully collapsed concrete completely sealed the doorway. It was no accident. Someone had taken time and effort; not a single gap remained.

"They sealed this exit too. Should we try the underground parking ramp?"

Si-Eun recalled the entrance they had first considered. Jeong-Hoon shook his head.

"The underground parking entrance already collapsed."

When he had fallen below, he had thought of escaping that way. It had already been ruined, which was why he had climbed upward instead.

"And if my guess is right, escaping is useless anyway."

If his theory held, no exit remained in this hotel at all. Even if one did, stepping outside would only complete the worst kind of hostage crisis.

As if timed to perfection, Nova's broadcast rolled through the hotel and turned Jeong-Hoon's guess into certainty.

Even before the announcement, Jeong-Hoon had already pieced together the shape of this hostage crisis. The terror itself was both meticulous and sloppy—full of details that simply did not add up.

For one thing, it was a hostage situation, yet they showed little interest in securing hostages. They only blocked escape attempts; they never herded people into a single controlled area.

Perhaps they were avoiding a direct clash with the hunters gathered for the party. But that still left no reason to attack South Korea this hard.

Korea ranked among the world's great hunter powers. To strike it—and a party venue crawling with hunters—could only mean a suicide squad ready for total annihilation.

"Seeing them collapse the entrance confirmed it for me."

"Confirmed what?"

"That Nova never intended to control the hostages at all."

"Then it's not even a hostage crisis, is it?"

They had fallen back from the entrance to the safest place they could find. When Jeong-Hoon laid out his theory, Si-Eun shook her head. By ordinary logic the whole thing made no sense.

"No. It still works as a hostage crisis. Hunter Han Si-Eun—if this hotel comes down, are you confident you can get out?"

At those words Si-Eun's face, and every hotel employee's face, drained of color. Even an S-class could not guarantee escape from a collapsing high-rise. Her acceleration was not teleportation.

"As long as hostages remain inside, the crisis stands."

They sealed every exit. What if someone still managed to get out?

"The answer is simple. Just as they warned—they bring the hotel down. Nova dies too, but the person who escaped becomes the villain who caused the catastrophe."

"But then Nova is wiped out as well."

"And Korean society gains a new poison: the belief that the next time Nova strikes, only the first ones to run will survive."

They had been sly enough to announce it inside the building. Almost certainly the outside world had heard it too. In that case it would not be "treated as"—it would simply be. Nova could even spin the narrative that they had tried to treat the hostages gently and talk, only to fail.

"That means they actually want someone to escape so they can collapse the place."

Si-Eun shook her head, unable to believe it. Surely even they would not go that far—yet Nova was exactly the sort of group that would.

"Once they've openly threatened to drop the hotel, we can't dismiss the possibility."

"I can't argue with that. So what do we do?"

"We wait for a rescue team that might come from outside, and we gather as many survivors as we can."

Without a way to neutralize every Nova in the building at once, this was the best option. If they held out, the vassals would certainly send help. Simply hiding was not enough; they needed to link up with the vassals already inside the hotel.

Given the risk of total collapse, a plan that saved only Jeong-Hoon would be the worst possible choice for the family. If everyone else died and he alone walked out unharmed, he would become the architect of the disaster. They had to join the vassals and be ready to answer from the inside when the 12 Vassals launched their rescue.

"For now we avoid the elevators. That's where I expect their main force is concentrated."

"Why the elevators?"

"High-rises are built around their elevator cores, right? Bring those down and the whole structure can't support its own weight."

He offered ordinary architectural common sense. Si-Eun and the hotel staff stared at him blankly.

"Huh. You didn't know?"

Every head nodded. Jeong-Hoon scratched his own in mild embarrassment.

"Hunter Han, I'll give you a pass—but you people work in a hotel. Shouldn't you know this?"

It was a matter of safety. Their blank looks only deepened.

"Um, Chairman? Even hotel staff don't usually get trained on structural weak points, do they?"

Si-Eun stepped in to defend the flustered employees. Jeong-Hoon scratched his head again.

"Lumen does."

It was not an excuse; it was fact. Lumen's guests were high-ranking hunters and tycoons. Anything related to safety was drilled constantly, because anything could happen at any time.

"Not that a Lumen building would fall just because one or two cores got smashed."

The training was pure contingency. Lumen was a fortress of exclusive membership, sealed against both outside intrusion and internal threats. The Gaju himself stayed there; security had to be absolute.

To anyone who did not know those circumstances, it simply sounded like the world's greatest hotel ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠chain ran a completely different kind of safety program.

While they moved through the hotel gathering scattered survivors, Si-Eun suddenly felt a presence at her back and broke into a cold sweat.

A sudden ambush.

No—there was no hostility in it. Still, the shock was enough.

Even with Nova staging a terror attack, she had never imagined they would field an Awakened skilled enough to take her from behind.

It was not vague speculation but hard reality: Nova rarely fielded anyone above B-class. Rumors claimed their ringleader was S-class, yet even among their executives only a handful reached A-class. High-rank hunters were simply that rare. Even among the world's Ten Great Guilds, S-class was a rank you almost never saw.

Anyone who could get behind an S-class was no ordinary opponent. She steeled herself.

"Chairman, the second I use my power, run. Don't worry about me—"

"Chairman. So this is where you were."

Si-Eun, power already rising for a fight, froze at the unexpected voice. Whether friend or foe was still unclear, yet the speaker clearly had no intention of attacking right away.

"…Just calling me 'Chairman' isn't enough to earn trust. Am I only a simple chairman to you?"

Jeong-Hoon looked at the person addressing him that way and deliberately chose a question that would evoke the family. It was not a word he would casually drop in front of outsiders, but he had to confirm whether this was an ally. There was always the chance a Nova had recognized his face and approached.

He was not foolish enough to lower his guard just because someone claimed to be a vassal.

"My apologies, Gaju. I committed the discourtesy of concealing my presence without leave."

At Jeong-Hoon's words the figure dropped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the concealment and knelt at once. Relief slipped from Jeong-Hoon's lips. This was the vassal the head butler had said would infiltrate the party.

"All right, stand up. Are you alone?"

"The others are waiting farther on. I am the scout."

The moment the terror began, the vassals had launched a search for Jeong-Hoon. They had not hunted him blindly; they had already rescued a considerable number of people. When Nova's warning sounded, they had also tracked down the reckless ones who tried to bolt without thinking and subdued them.

Selfishness pure and simple: better to be cursed as the cause of the disaster ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠than to die here.

"You handled that well."

"You flatter me."

Hearing about the would-be escapees, Jeong-Hoon grimaced, yet no curses rose to his tongue. Anyone who left first would leave the rest to die like dogs under a collapsing hotel. Fear that strong could easily paralyze reason.

"So what did you do with the people you subdued?"

"They are traveling with us."

"And the other hunters?"

"We crossed paths with a few. All of them are conducting rescue operations of their own, prioritizing people who try to flee and calming them down."

"And the ones those hunters save are under our protection?"

The vassal nodded.

"Any other points of note?"

"The enemy is Nova, yet they appear to be two distinct groups. One is a disciplined elite that understands the true purpose of this terror and remains under control. The other is a pack of thugs simply running wild because they want to use their power."

The vassal pointed out the unnatural movements of the Novas. Jeong-Hoon nodded. Even after committing terror, Nova had broadcast an order not to act rashly and had essentially left the hostages alone. At the same time, other packs still roamed the hotel attacking survivors. The contradiction made the two-group theory entirely plausible.

"The real elites drew up the plan, then dragged in riffraff just to fill out the numbers. Those extras aren't obeying orders, and the actual strike force is simply letting them."

Listening to the exchange, Si-Eun watched Jeong-Hoon and the vassal with open astonishment. The subordinate reported; the master judged. They moved as if this kind of bloodbath were familiar—no, as if a bloodbath was exactly where they belonged. That natural authority was why, the moment they linked up with the other vassals and survivors, Jeong-Hoon simply took the leader's seat.

"Any word from the head butler?"

"Because of the risk of interception, we are maintaining complete radio silence."

"Makes sense, but it's still inconvenient."

Jeong-Hoon scratched his head and studied the growing crowd. Linking with the vassals had at least resupplied him with magazines and daggers—excellent news. The vassals themselves were A-class Awakened who had mastered the family's secret arts, stronger than ordinary A-class. As bodyguards they were rock-solid.

"The problem is that our numbers have grown large enough to look like a threat to the other side."

This was a hostage crisis that used the hotel itself as a weapon, so the hostages were being left alone. Hostages who gathered and organized their strength, however, changed the equation. The real strike force—not the riffraff—might move.

"Still no public statement of purpose from Nova?"

"None. They may have announced something outside, but nothing has reached the interior yet."

The continued silence after an act of terror weighed on Jeong-Hoon. He scanned the gathered people. Aside from Si-Eun and the vassals, no one looked combat-capable. If Nova's sensors recognized that most of them were non-combatants, they might not judge the group a threat. Hoping their detection specialists were that skilled, however, was pure wishful thinking.

"Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon."

"…Ah—yes. Go ahead, Chairman Kim Sang-Myeong."

When Kim Sang-Myeong stepped forward, Jeong-Hoon's attention swung to him. The man had been among the businessmen the vassals brought along; Jeong-Hoon had exchanged greetings and then largely ignored him. The prejudice had been simple: a skilled businessman was useless in a situation like this. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠In fact, the only reason Kim had survived this long was pure luck—he had been standing next to a vassal when the first explosion hit.

"I believe it would be wise to split our numbers."

"I was thinking the same thing."

Jeong-Hoon nodded at once. Drawing attention was dangerous. Spreading out into groups that could exit the hotel more easily whenever rescue arrived was the best option he had.

"And given that the purpose of Nova's terror may include both myself and Chairman Lee, the two of us should move separately."

"…What?!"

Jeong-Hoon blurted the word in pure surprise. He had never opposed Nova hard enough to warrant an operation like this. If Kim was right, the warning had been a direct threat meant to keep the two of them from escaping.

"I recently had business dealings that put me in conflict with Nova. And the purification of the Hunter Association that you are currently conducting looks, from Nova's perspective, like the persecution of Awakened. It is not a difficult leap to conclude that the two of us are targets."

Jeong-Hoon shook his head. Even for lunatics like Nova, treating a crackdown on Hunter Association corruption as persecution of Awakened was absurd. Staging terror over it was even more so.

"Nova believes that an Awakened hiding the fact that they are Awakened is itself a disgrace. They insist Awakened must reveal themselves."

"…Is that why you tried to stop me at the party earlier?"

"I spoke because a radical group like Nova might target you. I never imagined they would move this quickly."

Jeong-Hoon had thought Kim was merely trying to soothe him. Learning that the man had actually been worried about his safety and offering advice made him reassess the chairman. The timing of that advice, unfortunately, had been terrible. The terror had struck exactly as feared, and a slightly worse stroke of luck at the moment of the explosion would have killed Jeong-Hoon on the spot. And the person standing closest had been Kim Sang-Myeong.

The idea that both of them were targets was not entirely far-fetched.

"Isn't that a stretch? Nova has plenty of people who hold grudges for reasons just as arbitrary as that—not only the two of us."

"Yet the possibility remains more than sufficient. Businessmen live in a world that measures human madness in numbers, do we not?"

Jeong-Hoon had only been testing him, hoping Kim might possess information even Lumen had missed. He got nothing for the effort and stepped back before the other man's quiet intensity.

"Haa… Fine. We'll organize the groups so that Chairman Kim Sang-Myeong and I are in separate ones."

Jeong-Hoon exhaled and began dividing the people, casting a sidelong glance at Kim.

This was the man whose every venture succeeded so consistently that people half-jokingly called him the Regressor. Looking at him now, Jeong-Hoon felt he had just glimpsed the cold, clinical madness that sat at the root of that success.