The Law Is on My Side

As I pushed through the acrid smoke, a wave of commotion washed over me from every direction.

The torrent of fire that had been hammering the entrance cut off abruptly, and the gazes of the dumbstruck hunters came pouring down on me.

[Mir], [Dokkaebi], the Hunter Management Bureau—everyone, without exception, had their eyes fixed on a single point.

Behind my back. On the bizarre, crudely bundled package I carried.

They couldn't take their eyes off it; I half expected the crowd's pupils to move in perfect unison every time I shifted the bundle from side to side.

It was, after all, something that guy had carried out after casually strolling through that bombardment—and with a massive energy signature being detected on the other side, they naturally assumed whatever it was lay inside this bundle.

'And they'd be right.'

That was when it happened.

"Hold it right there!"

Someone stepped into my path.

It was Seo Jihun, a 1st Rank hunter attached to the Hunter Management Bureau.

The same man I'd briefly crossed paths with when I crossed the containment line, he now blocked my way with an expression tense as a drawn bowstring.

His gaze was still riveted to my bundle.

His eyes wavered.

He was clearly dying to know what was inside. I doubted it was mere curiosity over what I'd claimed—more likely, he already had a fairly good idea what the thing actually was.

If the contents went to auction, he'd never outbid the corporations, so no doubt he wanted to snatch it away under some pretext or other.

'But there is no pretext.'

I'd committed no crime, broken no rules. I'd even shown my certification—any complaint he could raise would be pure nitpicking.

After a short silence, Seo Jihun finally shouted in a voice that sounded wrung out of him.

"...That bundle. Isn't that suit fabric from an elite operative of the Hunter Management Bureau? Unauthorized appropriation is a crime."

A dry laugh escaped me.

Sharp eyes, I'll give him that. Recognizing it on sight from a scrap of wrapping cloth.

But there was a reason Seo Jihun couldn't press the accusation with full confidence.

What he'd said was half right—and half wrong.

I met Seo Jihun's eyes squarely and shot the question back at him.

"Article 7, Paragraph 2 of the Special Act on the Recovery of Lost Property in Dungeons. Are you unfamiliar with it?"

"······"

Back when I'd done operations work from an office desk, a similar situation had erupted in one of the exploration teams. And at the time, I'd made a point of memorizing the relevant law in detail.

'It's practically an unwritten rule in the industry anyway.'

"Property 'abandoned' when its owner relinquishes ownership and flees reverts to whoever recovers it. If it bothers you that much, you shouldn't have dropped it and run."

"That's—"

Seo Jihun's brow furrowed, and his mouth snapped shut.

A veteran hunter and a civil servant both, there was no way he didn't know this law.

Why had it been enacted in the first place? Losing equipment in a dungeon was common. But unless death was staring them in the face, a hunter's instinct was to recover it at all costs.

And yet—things that couldn't be recovered. Things abandoned behind them.

Left to pile up, that was a loss of national resources, a leak of national power. Given that dungeons could vanish at any moment to a Dimensional Phase Shift, the law existed precisely to offer incentives—however grudging—so that someone, anyone, would drag those resources back out into the light.

'In fact, before this law was passed, plenty of hunters died charging back into dungeons they'd already failed to clear at full strength, driven by nothing but obsession over the gear they'd lost—unable to make a rational choice.'

That was why the law doubled as a safety net for hunters who, having lost their equipment, could no longer think straight.

...Well. It probably stung, knowing that what I'd picked up wasn't just junk. But rules were rules.

While Seo Jihun, unable to rebut my logic, stood there chewing on his tongue, another man who'd been waiting for an opening at his side cut in.

"You talk awfully vicious for someone with nothing to hide."

A hunter from Ark Industry's Special Response Team. The one who'd sneered at me from beyond the containment line earlier.

Making no effort to conceal the gleam in his eyes, he sauntered up wearing a deliberately composed air.

"Still, you did solo a dungeon this dangerous. The least you could do is show us what's inside, no? You see them over there, don't you? Journalists—civilians, mind you—who came all the way up here risking their lives, bodyguards and all, armed with nothing but journalism."

He jerked his chin toward the reporters with a sly grin.

Clearly hoping to whip up public opinion and squeeze me into compliance.

"And it looks heavy, too. Tell you what—I'll help you carry it..."

His hand darted for my shoulder like a striking snake. This was a hunter ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠deployed for special operations, not one who stood in the front line—and his speed was monstrous.

An ordinary person wouldn't even have registered the movement.

Whoosh.

I didn't so much as lift a foot. I simply leaned my upper body back by the width of a single sheet of paper.

"Eh...?"

Certain he'd caught me, his hand carved circles through empty air. The sight of him staggering off-balance was honestly a little funny.

"It's fragile merchandise. Kindly keep your hands to yourself."

"Oh, come on—what's so hard about a quick look—"

"I'm not some Midas streamer collecting Moon Balloons. Why would I owe you a show?"

I answered flatly and started walking again.

Maybe that dismissal got under his skin.

Top-tier hunters were proud by nature and had a tendency to do exactly as they pleased. Just look at Park Jin-chul. And someone in the Special Response Team—an even higher tier of arrogance entirely—would be worse.

"You son of a—I said nicely—!"

His hand came back charged with menace.

But.

Thud.

There was no need for me to dodge it this time.

"...That's enough."

"Why are you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠letting him walk?! Doesn't the Bureau need to verify what that is?!"

"It's legally airtight. He isn't wrong."

Seo Jihun slapped the man's arm down, cold as ice.

As a Bureau hunter he was obliged to uphold principle—and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠besides, the calculation in his head had probably just finished running.

If he'd guessed that what was in the bundle came from the mana stone lode, then there was no reason to publicly reveal its contents in this chaos and drive every competitor into a frenzy.

Better, he must have judged, to let me go quietly and find another way.

'Good call. Cold-blooded, but good.'

I left the two of them behind and slipped out through the crowd.

I could feel Seo Jihun's persistent stare boring into the back of my skull.

But beneath it lay something more than suspicion.

Not only had I dodged the hand of a 1st Rank hunter, I hadn't given Ark's Special Response Team so much as a crack to exploit. And on top of that, I'd passed through a dungeon considered completely impenetrable, alone, without any gear.

Even for Seo Jihun—a Bureau hunter who had the profiles of elite hunters committed to memory line by line—it was beyond imagining.

'...What exactly is he?'

At this point, he was starting to wonder if that ridiculous costume—the one that seemed to mock the dungeon itself—was a deliberate taunt aimed at everyone else.

The next day. The office.

"Did you see the article yesterday? About the 2nd floor, the 'Graveyard of Blade Winds.'"

"Of course. It was splashed across every industry headline—hard to miss. Group chats have been on fire all morning. It's insane, absolutely insane."

The office air was electric.

From the crack of dawn, employees had gathered in clusters, and there was exactly one topic of conversation: yesterday's masked man in the suit.

Park Jin-chul, Team Leader of Field Exploration, was still hospitalized, but Lee Seok-hyun—who'd returned early with only minor injuries—and the other team members couldn't contain their excitement either, chattering away nonstop.

Then again, stories like this didn't come along every day: major corporate parties left eating dust while a lone hunter carved his name into the industry with the strangest career trajectory anyone had ever seen.

"Honestly, the moment I saw that outfit I thought, great, another concept-streamer wannabe—but he was no joke. The headline photo is him walking out of that bombing barrage. I genuinely thought I was watching a Hollywood movie."

"The Midas side even posted footage of him entering the dungeon. Watch it and he barely seems to move at all, but somehow nothing touches him. Has to be some kind of special ability. Who even is he? I can't place the face at all."

"A hermit master who does nothing but eat and train his skills, maybe? Awakened, grew disillusioned with the mundane world, then threw ten thousand punches at a waterfall! You know, that sort of thing."

"Where exactly is this hidden master supposed to be hiding in this day and age? And with an ability like that, a corporation would treat him like an emperor with a full team supporting him. Why would he need to go solo?"

"Well, there are a lot of weird ones ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠among the solo hunters, that's all I'm saying."

Watching them spin their fantasies, I couldn't help a hollow little smile.

Then again—suit, box cutter of a blade, wandering dungeons in that getup—it did feel like someone searching for his past self. Nobody traipsing around dungeons in such a bizarre costume was all there, and for killing time at the office, skimming articles about the guy was perfect entertainment.

'Funny thing being that the guy is me.'

"But seriously, how did he even get in? Mir got so desperate they launched a drone to track his route, and it got blasted out of the sky."

"He's got to have something. Watch him move—there's zero hesitation."

I was in the middle of their heated debate when—

BANG!

The office door burst open and a man in a black uniform stormed in.

'The Special Response Team...?'

It was the guy from yesterday.

"Team Leader Park! Where's Team Leader Park?"

The sheer menace and urgency in his voice froze the employees in place.

No one got summoned like that over anything good.

It was Lee Seok-hyun who finally shuffled forward and answered.

"Um... Team Leader Park is still at the medical center with his injuries... it'll be another day or so before he can return to work."

"Ha... Fucking hell! Nothing ever goes right."

He snapped, irritable.

"Out there, some no-name hunter without so much as a piece of gear is stripping the core clean all by himself! And the so-called elite Field Exploration Team Leader is lying in bed groaning like an invalid?!"

He jabbed his finger at empty air, swearing a blue streak, then wheeled around and stormed out.

"······"

Where the storm had passed, a brief silence lingered.

Then the employees began trading guesses about why the Special Response Team—people most of them had never even laid eyes on—had come down to their floor.

"Why would they suddenly be looking for the Team Leader, though?"

"Judging by what he said... isn't he talking about yesterday? Maybe they analyzed it and found some new clearing strategy to try."

"Who knows... Either way, the goods walked right past us. And we can't even get our own Team Leader out of bed."

Listening to all this, I swallowed a bitter laugh.

I had no idea why the guy had come looking for Park Jin-chul, but whether he went himself or sent a team—or even brought in another corporate party—none of them were getting through that entrance.

A route? A strategy?

None existed to begin with.

Even if they somehow clawed through the early stretches, the depths would be impossible to break.

I'd thrown stones into the central chamber to open my final path—and on the way out, I'd kicked a few loose rocks around like solving an alibi puzzle, tangling the air currents into an even worse mess.

I'd left the door locked behind me. Not just this cycle, but the next one too, the only person who'd be walking in and out of that place was me.

'Not that they'd have any way of knowing that. They'll just bash their heads against a wall and grind their gear to dust.'

The one-month grace period before my resignation. I found myself thinking it might turn out to be the best time I'd ever spent at this company.

Just as a chuckle threatened to slip out—

"Team Leader. Something good happen to you?"

At some point, Assistant Manager Lee Seo-yeon had appeared beside my desk.

And her eyes were sparkling with curiosity.

"You can fool everyone else, but not me. The Special Response Team comes tearing in here causing a scene, and you're the only one sitting there smiling... Well?"

Sharp as ever.

But even she had jumped to the wrong conclusion.

She glanced around, then lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

"Be honest with me. Yesterday's man of the hour, the Suit Guy. You know him, don't you?"

"...I'm sorry?"

"Oh, come off it, don't play innocent. I don't know where you dredged him up from, but he's running on your operations, isn't he?"

What an imagination.

Well—no, it was a perfectly reasonable deduction, really. Lee Seo-yeon had only ever seen me running operations from behind a desk, so that was as far as her guesses could reach.

'I didn't expect to end up on the front lines myself, either.'

"Well... who's to say."

All I did was deflect with a deliberately enigmatic smile.

Having brushed off Lee Seo-yeon with that, my mind was already elsewhere.

'The dungeon raid went off without a hitch—but the truly important work starts now.'

Yesterday's haul. From miscellaneous junk like the special-fiber cloth I'd used as wrapping to mana-coated plate armor, all the way up to mana stones carrying specific Concept attributes.

Sell off what needed selling.

'And the good pieces, I might as well try out myself.'

Though the law had made it all legally mine, some of it was effectively stolen goods, and I could already see the source-verification checks and identity confirmations giving me a monstrous headache.

Which left exactly one answer.

The place every hunter on the front lines eventually found their way to. It was time to visit the black market.