Chapter 145
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 145
Chapter Title: Levatein (3)
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Kang Ju-young received a call from the Healer via the guild system late in the evening.
The Healer said they had wiped out a criminal organization and discovered captives in the process, instructing her to contact the Hero Association.
"......"
From the criminal organization itself to the tale of its destruction and the people who had been captured.
Kang Ju-young was filled with questions she wanted to probe one by one, but the Healer cut off the call after delivering that message.
"......Yes, this is Kang Ju-young. Sorry to call so late."
Afterward, Kang Ju-young contacted Hero Association Chairman Jeon Il-seop, relayed the location the Healer had mentioned, and headed out herself.
It was quite a distance away, so it took some time, but upon arrival, she spotted Jeon Il-seop and the Hero Association staff who had gotten there ahead of her.
"Kang Ju-young. You've come too?"
Jeon Il-seop addressed her with eyes heavy with exhaustion.
He had spent several days and nights on cleanup after dealing with the monsters that poured out from the previous S-rank gate.
"Are you tired?"
"Tired? You could say that. They've dumped the whole S-rank gate fiasco on me."
The S-rank gate outbreak had been contained without much trouble, thanks to the Archmage's heroics.
But the government and National Assembly were pinning the blame on Jeon Il-seop for failing to detect it in advance.
On top of that, they were pressuring him over relying on help from an unknown figure who wasn't even registered as a hero—the Archmage.
"I ought to just quit on the spot."
Jeon Il-seop was fully prepared to hand over the position to anyone more capable.
That said, the chairman's role involved leading heroes, so it was preferable for the person to be a hero themselves. Yet no one was stepping up.
"In any case, your story caught me off guard. The Healer's group attacked another organization?"
"Yes. They found the captives in the process and seem to have requested we handle the aftermath."
Jeon Il-seop let out a hollow chuckle, as if it were absurd.
"Isn't the Healer part of a criminal outfit themselves? Never thought they'd go as far as cleaning up after other criminals."
"The Healer hasn't committed any crimes."
"Right, that was the Destroyer. But the Destroyer joined the Healer's organization, didn't they?"
And now that group had gone so far as to attack another organization.
Jeon Il-seop had no hesitation in classifying them as a criminal organization and turned his gaze to the garden at the location Kang Ju-young had described.
"Looks like they've built something underneath that garden. Kang Ju-young, since you're here, come along with us."
"Yes."
With that, Jeon Il-seop led Kang Ju-young and the Hero Association staff into the garden.
Upon entering and spotting the hole Lee Seong-min had punched in the floor, he could see it opened into a surprisingly spacious underground area.
"Come to think of it, I haven't heard what group this was."
Jeon Il-seop glanced at Kang Ju-young to learn which organization had been targeted.
Unfortunately, she hadn't gotten a name from the Healer either, so she shook her head.
"I don't have that information."
"Can't you contact them now and ask?"
"They don't accept incoming calls."
"......Then there's no helping it."
They'd find out soon enough by searching the place.
Dismissing it with that thought, Jeon Il-seop first issued orders to the Association staff.
"Teams 1 and 2, search the mansion interior. Teams 3 through 5, follow me to investigate the underground."
After that, he led Kang Ju-young and Teams 3 to 5 down into the subterranean space.
Surveying the underground chamber after landing, Jeon Il-seop eyed the dozens of shattered chairs and the platform, forming a guess.
"Feels like a performance hall or an auction house."
"Given it's a criminal group, both are possibilities."
"Introducing or selling forbidden artifacts, maybe."
Among the artifacts obtainable from towers or gates, some were classified as forbidden.
Types that gained power by sacrificing others or enabled mass slaughter fell into that category.
"Could even be something like the [Life Harvest] demonic sword."
The artifact known as [Life Harvest] was a demonic sword that grew stronger with each human it absorbed, one victim at a time.
It required human sacrifices exclusively, gradually empowering itself while simultaneously corrupting the user's mind.
"You mean the demonic sword that showed up in Japan."
"Word is it was recovered, but then it vanished. Probably stolen by someone."
Jeon Il-seop said no more on the matter and scanned the surroundings.
Bullet marks and explosion scars were visible here and there.
"Bloodstains too, so they all died."
If the Destroyer had been there, he doubted any organization members survived.
Even if they had died, he figured the Healer wouldn't have revived them. Deeming there was nothing more to see, he turned to Kang Ju-young.
"Where are the captives...... Ah, you don't know that either?"
"Yes. We'll have to look."
"Looks like both of us are pulling an all-nighter."
Fortunately, the captives weren't hard to find.
Spotting a long corridor leading out from what seemed to be a secret auction hall, Jeon Il-seop and Kang Ju-young soon located them.
"This is......"
Jeon Il-seop rushed into the room and checked on the woman restrained to the bed.
"Drugs. She's heavily addicted, but her complexion is surprisingly intact."
The bound woman appeared deeply addicted to narcotics, yet her face and body showed no signs of deterioration.
From that, Jeon Il-seop could guess the type of drug and get a rough idea of the organization behind it.
"Impact. Or at least connected to Impact."
"You mean the nationally designated criminal group?"
"High likelihood. It's their signature drug."
The narcotics produced by Impact differed greatly from conventional ones.
They inflicted no harm on the body—in fact, they even improved health.
But they hooked the mind on pleasure, rendering normal life impossible. A drug was still a drug.
"Confirm how many there are and call for ambulances."
"Yes."
Jeon Il-seop issued orders for their rescue and continued checking the rooms along the corridor.
Not only women but monsters were confined in some rooms as well. Jeon Il-seop and Kang Ju-young both grimaced at the sight.
"These aren't your average lunatics."
With that, Jeon Il-seop gathered mana in his hand and obliterated the dryad tied to one of the beds.
"Dryads haven't appeared in Korea, so it must have been imported from abroad."
"Just raises the odds it's Impact. More importantly, there's a broken wall at the end of the corridor—let's check it out."
Heading back down the corridor to the end, Jeon Il-seop confirmed the space beyond the wall was completely empty.
"Probably where they stored their collected goods."
The problem was that not a speck of dust remained.
Jeon Il-seop was certain who was responsible and spoke to Kang Ju-young almost pleadingly.
"You really can't reach the Healer?"
"Not unless they contact us first."
"No clue what items were even here."
Jeon Il-seop's face was etched with concern, but Kang Ju-young didn't take it too seriously.
Considering the Healer’s group already had the Destroyer and the Archmage, a few more items from here wouldn't make much difference.
"Chairman!"
At that moment, a Hero Association member approached rather urgently from one side, calling out to Jeon Il-seop.
"What is it?"
"CCTV footage from the mansion—it captured what went down here."
"Let's go."
The moment he heard that, Jeon Il-seop left the presumed storage area and headed for the mansion.
Kang Ju-young, equally curious about the footage, followed him toward the mansion as well.
"Right here."
The room they arrived in was a surveillance hub equipped with numerous monitors for viewing all the CCTV feeds.
The Association member operated the console in front of them, played back the relevant footage, and showed it to Jeon Il-seop and Kang Ju-young.
"Take a look."
Kwaaaang!!—
As the video played, the first thing visible was seven men crashing through the ceiling.
Jeon Il-seop spotted the Healer and Destroyer among them and let out a small groan.
"......"
Kang Ju-young focused intently on the remaining four men in the footage, excluding the Healer, Destroyer, and Archmage.
"The one in the center must be the boss."
In any event, around thirty organization members appeared onscreen, unleashing all sorts of explosives and abilities.
But none of the attacks reached the men, blocked by what resembled an invisible barrier that had sprung up unnoticed.
Puk—
Then shadows around them erupted in thorn-like forms, instantly killing every organization member.
"Looks like shadow manipulation ability."
Jeon Il-seop pondered whether the shadow user was as formidable as the Destroyer or Archmage.
Regardless, soon after, a brutish-faced man appeared, bellowed something, then flinched upon seeing the Destroyer.
-Destroyer? Why have you come here?
-The organization's will.
After the Destroyer's reply, the man in the center calmly introduced himself.
-As you said. I'm the boss of Levatein.
Hearing that, Jeon Il-seop learned the organization's name and the identity of its boss.
"That guy's the boss...... Levatein? Never heard of them before."
Kang Ju-young was unfamiliar with Levatein as well.
"Probably the boss recruited types like the Healer and Archmage recently to form the group."
"That tracks. No idea where he found people like that, though."
The odd part was that every single one of them, Destroyer aside, was a complete unknown.
The Destroyer had only surfaced recently too, with no grasp of their prior identity.
'They didn't just drop out of the sky.'
Jeon Il-seop's doubts only deepened, and Kang Ju-young shared similar thoughts.
While Jeon Il-seop and Kang Ju-young were lost in thought watching the footage.
"These are forbidden artifacts?"
Back at the dorms, at Lee Seo-jun's request, I described the effects of the artifacts we'd grabbed from the warehouse one by one.
He then singled out several as banned artifacts and set them aside—five in total.