Extreme Techniques
Ha Seung-hee suddenly changed the meeting place. I grumbled at her about it, but she didn't give an inch. In the end, instead of the original spot, we agreed to meet at a small café on the outskirts of Seoul.
I ignored the CLOSED sign and stepped inside, making sure to lock the door behind me. Ha Seung-hee was sitting deep in the back, out of sight from the street. No matter how many times I looked at that long black hair and that composed face, she still felt less like a person and more like a doll.
"Why the sudden change of venue?"
"This place has way more atmosphere than a billiard hall."
"A billiard hall has its own charm. I wanted to have sex there."
Meeting up at ordinary hotels or motels for sex had gotten boring. I wanted places where I could chase something different.
"You rented this café, right? How much did it cost?"
"Didn't cost anything. I borrowed it from a friend who runs a café as a hobby."
"Still not getting it. Why meet here?"
"Ha Jun-soo. My older brother approached you, didn't he? If he's decided to move in earnest, it wouldn't be strange for either of us to pick up a tail. The area around this café is wide open—perfect for checking whether anyone's following us. And more importantly, we don't have to worry about wiretaps here."
"It looks like a normal café. You're saying it's safe?"
"Hmm. Better if you see for yourself. Follow me."
Ha Seung-hee stood and headed for the kitchen. At the back of it was a small door. Opening it revealed a spacious corridor and a staircase. We went down, and a single room appeared.
"This is…."
A huge TV. Plush sofas. A long table. Dim lighting—it looked exactly like a club's VIP room.
"A secret party spot for third-generation chaebol kids?!"
"My friends and I use it sometimes. Being born into a conglomerate family means far too many people take an excessive interest in you."
"Perfect for sex or drug parties."
"Men never come here. Sex is out of the question. The best thing about this place is that even a top-tier A-rank psychometry-type ability user couldn't figure out what happened inside."
"By that logic, aren't we already too late? We've met plenty of other places."
"Psychometry has conditions. Were any of the places we met special to us?"
"Not really."
"Without attachment to an object or location, even an outstanding psychometry user can't dig up more than about ten days of the past."
"Then why choose this place now?"
"Because my older brother figured it out."
"Ha Jun-soo, you mean. He might've just been fishing."
"You don't know him. That man doesn't move without certainty. The fact that he moved means he already has it."
"About you and me, right?"
"How long are you going to keep joking? You already know what he's after."
Hevil's Growth Accelerator.
The thing I'd given Ha Seung-hee—the thing she was researching.
If she succeeded in mass-producing Hevil's Growth Accelerator, there was a high chance she'd lock down the position of group heir. Naturally, Ha Jun-soo, who was after that same seat, wouldn't be thrilled.
"Did he find out about Hevil's Growth Accelerator?"
"He hasn't. If he had, he'd have been far more blatant."
"We're still continuing our contract, right?"
"That's what I wanted to talk about. I want to make the contract more solid."
"……."
I looked around the room, then sat on the sofa—and found it. Powder stuck in the cracks of the cushions.
"You said no drug parties."
I dabbed the powder with a finger and held it out to her. Ha Seung-hee's eyes went wide.
"Th-there's no law that says that's drugs."
"Wouldn't flour or salt be even weirder in a place like this?"
"……Haa. I didn't know about this either."
"Doesn't sound like great friends."
"Not the kind you get close to, no."
Ha Seung-hee pulled a contract from her bag and set it on the table.
"A contract? Don't tell me you want to renegotiate. I like the current one just fine."
"Our current contract isn't something we can show other people. To avoid pointless disputes later, I want a proper contract with you on record."
"…You finished making Hevil's Growth Accelerator?"
"Results are coming soon. The effect is weaker than the original Hevil's Growth Accelerator, which is a shame—but even so, it's an incredible product. Once we announce it officially, the world will flip upside down."
"HB-1 is the name for Hevil's Growth Accelerator?"
"For the replica of Hevil's Growth Accelerator, yes. Here—look at the terms."
"…That's a lot of clauses. Summarize."
"You will not transfer, sell, or otherwise give the original Hevil's Growth Accelerator to anyone except me. In exchange for me holding the rights to both the original Hevil's Growth Accelerator and HB-1, I pay you three hundred billion won. …The rest is confidentiality and so on."
"Something important's missing."
"…What?"
"You and me. This contract doesn't mean our relationship ends, right?"
To me, the relationship with Ha Seung-hee mattered more than the money.
"…I'll keep that arrangement going if only to keep your mouth shut. With you, I can never quite predict what you'd do if things went sideways."
"Haha. You know me well. Then… shall I collect the contract fee?"
I reached for her. Just as I expertly took hold of her top to pull it off, she caught my wrist.
"I have a favor to ask."
"A favor?"
"Guard our lab for about a week. My older brother will probably use force soon to steal the HB-1 data."
"…Siblings going as far as armed conflict?"
"Our family is a little special. In cases like this, a single armed clash is permitted—the first time only. Of course, siblings killing each other is forbidden. That rule applies to the servants as well. So you can't kill any enemies who break into the lab either."
"Think about who our grandfather is."
"Your grandfather is the chairman of the Sejin Group, and…."
Ha Heon-shin.
Chairman of the Sejin Group, and an S-rank hunter known by the moniker Gwe-shin—the Monster God.
The path he'd taken to build Sejin Group was infamous for its brutality. Rumors that he'd grown the company hand-in-hand with criminal organizations were easy enough to find online. Looking at Ha Seung-hee's reaction now, they might not have been rumors at all.
"I'm only B-class. Hiring reliable A-rank firepower would be better."
"Unfortunately, there's no one I can trust. My older brother has an absurd amount of money—people get bought easily. My own network is pathetic next to his. …The only hunter I can trust is you."
"The opposition will be A-rank, right?"
"…Yes."
"If killing's off the table… what about arms and legs?"
"As long as you don't kill them, I don't care. Honestly, I think the odds of failure are high. If it looks like you can't win… destroy part of the HB-1 data. That way I'll still have a chance."
"I'll take care of your favor. Don't worry."
A chance to fight an A-rank hunter other than Jin Seyeong without fretting over my life. From my perspective, that wasn't bad at all. And if Ha Seung-hee did well, I'd benefit in all kinds of ways.
Hearing my answer, Ha Seung-hee undressed herself. She was wearing pink lingerie with a split down the center. The bra emphasized her stiff pink nipples, and the panties left her tightly closed pussy fully on display.
That wasn't all. She pulled a cat-ear headband from her bag and put it on. Face flushed deep red, mouth working, she climbed onto the table and got into a cat pose.
"M-meow!"
"Hahahaha. Perfect. You're the cutest, Seung-hee."
I took her by the shoulders and pulled her into my arms.
As promised with Ha Seung-hee, I ended up standing guard at the lab.
The place was packed with cutting-edge equipment I'd never seen. According to her, they were using alchemy to produce HB-1—the replica of Hevil's Growth Accelerator.
And this… is the USB with part of the HB-1 data.
I turned the USB over in my hand. If I couldn't beat the raiders, I'd destroy this and wipe the data.
Today was day three of guard duty. I fiddled with my phone with bored eyes. Before Ha Seung-hee left for the day, chatting about this and that had been reasonably fun—but once everyone was gone and I was alone in the lab, it was painfully dull.
Seung-hee is a hundred percent sure Ha Jun-soo will send people. If that's her judgment, she's probably right. I just wish they'd hurry up and get here.
I clicked my tongue after reading a newly released webtoon. I hated it. Familiar art style, familiar story—even the worldbuilding had no character. Somehow the whole subculture scene felt like it was regressing instead of advancing as time went on.
At least draw the female characters hot. Not a single one of them is fuckable.
I clicked my tongue again and looked for another webtoon.
Zzt.
The fluorescent light suddenly went haywire. It flickered on and off, over and over. I frowned up at it.
What the hell is this all of a sudden?
The light kept blinking like a ghost had possessed it. It was getting on my nerves. Pulling the tube out entirely would probably be better.
I climbed onto a chair and reached for the fluorescent light. The moment my fingers touched it, the flickering tube went dead.
"Hi."
A woman's voice. Then two hands stretched down from the ceiling and locked around my throat. Her slender fingers were stronger than they looked. Sharp nails dug into my neck. I felt blood run down.
"Seong Yujin, right? I've heard a lot about you. People are expecting you might become a new S-rank hunter. I'm jealous."
"……."
I focused mana into both eyes and looked up at the ceiling. Both arms were extending from it—yet I couldn't sense a presence at all.
She was completely fooling my detection.
A specialist at this kind of work, then.
I grabbed both wrists choking me and discharged lightning. Crackle-crackle-crackle. The arms struck by the current vanished like ghosts. I rubbed my stinging neck and stepped down from the chair.
"Drop the ghost act and show yourself."
"Confident, aren't you. You don't even know where I am."
Her voice rang from every direction. No presence, and pinpointing her by sound was impossible. One thing was certain: she was hiding somewhere in this room.
When she grabbed my throat at first… she wasn't trying to choke me to death. She was trying to knock me out. The fact that she doesn't want to kill me means she's one of Ha Jun-soo's people.
A way to force her out came to me.
I breathed and moved my mana. As it flowed from inside me outward, a wind rose.
Crackle.
Blue current sparked at my fingertips. I swept my arm and scattered the electricity in every direction.
Lightning dissolves into the air, crushing and scattering mana itself.
Crackle. Snap!
Current melting into empty space pressed down on mana and tore it apart.
"Wh-what is this?! My mana won't move the way I want…!"
Her flustered voice came from behind me. I turned. A red-haired foreign woman in tight clothes was rolling her eyes toward me. An intricate tattoo marked the left side of her face. Calling her a beauty would have been a stretch—her face was too broad.
I immediately reached to grab her throat. She dodged my hand, kicked off the wall, ran through the air, and landed on the floor. Her legs sank slowly into the ground as if into a swamp.
"A few seconds and the mana's back to normal. You barely have any hunter experience, and you're already using weird techniques?"