Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: Tag (2)
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Kang Hyun-soo's group headed out hunting the next day.
Fortunately, there were no major clashes.
But on the third day, trouble arose.
“You lot, what guild are you with?”
They got into a confrontation with players from Zhonghua Guild.
‘These guys are overflowing with arrogance.’
Common sense dictated that when you ran into other players in a hunting ground, you kept your distance and avoided them.
Getting too close unnecessarily would get you pegged as a murderer player in no time.
But the Zhonghua Guild players showed no such reservations.
And then.
“Not bad-looking.”
“Hand her over to us and scram.”
The Zhonghua Guild players acted less like members of a major guild and more like street thugs.
‘It's not like this is a hangout for delinquents.’
Zhonghua Guild was a massive guild affiliated with the Mightor Kingdom.
In fact, they practically dominated the large city of Luzabenu.
That meant their behavior was something to behold.
‘Come to think of it, the first run-in started when those guys leered at Song Ha-na.’
Were they like corrupt European nobles from the Middle Ages or yangban from Joseon?
These guys seemed to think extortion, assault, murder, and rape were no big deal.
‘They're utterly useless trash.’
No, their disappearance from this world might actually benefit humanity as a whole.
‘Battalion Summon.’
Kang Hyun-soo summoned his summons to block the surrounding view.
And then.
Slash!
He sliced off the arm of the Zhonghua Guild player who had approached so boldly.
“Aaagh!”
“You bastard, what the hell!”
“You're crazy!”
The enraged Zhonghua Guild players flew into a frenzy and charged at Kang Hyun-soo.
‘These guys' playbook never changes.’
They were utterly convinced that Zhonghua Guild was the best.
‘If they had any brains, they'd think twice.’
If they'd recalled the recent disappearance incident?
They would've run instead of charging.
‘Not that it matters anyway.’
Their escape routes were already blocked by the summons.
Slash! Slash!
The Zhonghua Guild players began collapsing in an instant.
But none died.
They just lost three or four limbs, rendering them combat-ineffective, or passed out.
The fight ended in a flash.
‘They'd just hit level 500.’
Objectively speaking, they had reason to be confident.
This was Zhonghua Guild's front yard.
And they'd broken through the level 400 wall to reach level 500, making them guild elites.
“Let's go.”
Kang Hyun-soo leaped away with those words.
Song Ha-na and the Beast Emperor followed him.
Grrrrowl!
The monsters that the summons had been holding back pounced on the Zhonghua Guild players.
A short while later.
Once the situation was cleared, Kang Hyun-soo's group reemerged.
‘They've got a lot of good items.’
Most were B-Rank, with the lowest being C-Rank.
The skill books they dropped upon death were also high-rank.
‘At this rate, the Sword of Gluttony might grow in no time.’
To evolve the A-Rank Sword of Gluttony required a massive amount of high-rank items.
And Zhonghua Guild was supplying them.
But that wasn't all.
‘Battalion Formation.’
The dead Zhonghua Guild players revived as Kang Hyun-soo's summons.
‘They're really giving it all away.’
Items, skill books, even summons.
To Kang Hyun-soo, Zhonghua Guild players were like trees that gave without reservation.
Kang Hyun-soo's group continued hunting as if nothing had happened.
And the next day, and the day after that, they kept at it.
A month later.
The number of missing Zhonghua Guild members surpassed a hundred.
* * *
Boom!
“You idiots! Why can't you catch the culprit! What the hell is wrong with you!”
Zhonghua Guild's vice master, Annihilating Demon Spear Jin Gu-pyeong, ranted and roared in fury.
It was different from when the 8th party of the 5th team had failed to return at first.
Back then, there had been some excuse.
But things started going wrong when the 6th team's investigation squad vanished.
They'd mobilized all seven remaining teams for a search.
But they hadn't caught a whiff of the culprit.
Meanwhile, the missing players trickled in one by one.
They'd tried merging two parties into one for hunting as a stopgap.
But it had no effect.
No, the number of missing players had actually increased.
Annihilating Demon Spear Jin Gu-pyeong wanted to merge ten parties into one if he could.
But that would tank hunting efficiency too hard.
Even merging two had sparked overflowing complaints—what about ten?
That would be tantamount to telling the 5th team parties not to hunt at all.
And crucially.
‘If ten parties vanish at once, it's unmanageable.’
Currently, a quarter of the 5th team was gone.
If ten parties went missing?
That'd be another quarter.
‘We have to catch the culprit no matter what.’
The damage was already too severe.
No getting around it.
When the guild master returned from the expedition?
He'd be ousted from his vice master position for sure.
He had to catch the culprit before the guild master got back.
That was the only way to even slightly preserve his seat.
“Found the guy with the Mark of Revenge yet?”
“No, sir.”
“What about the ones who sold off the dead guild members' items?”
“Not a single one.”
“That doesn't make sense!”
The investigation teams had scoured the sites where guild members died multiple times.
But not a single item remained.
That was the strongest proof the missing players hadn't been killed by monsters.
Monsters didn't take items.
They didn't eat them either.
Only players needed items.
“The culprit probably isn't inside Luzabenu.”
Zhonghua Guild had assumed the perp was holed up in Luzabenu.
So they'd unleashed all their members to comb the city top to bottom.
But.
They hadn't found a single player with the mark of revenge.
They'd searched every shop from big chains to mom-and-pops.
But no items from the missing guild members turned up.
“It's been suspicious from the start. Who in Luzabenu would dare attack Zhonghua Guild?”
Annihilating Demon Spear Jin Gu-pyeong nodded at his adjutant's words—it rang true.
Luzabenu was Zhonghua Guild territory.
Most top players were affiliated with Zhonghua Guild.
There were small and mid-sized guilds, sure.
But those were essentially Zhonghua Guild subsidiaries.
They paid tribute and followed orders obediently.
Independent parties weren't worth mentioning.
Unless they were suicidal, no group of four to a dozen or so could challenge a mega-guild like Zhonghua.
No, more precisely, they lacked the power to.
Independent parties were rejects who couldn't join mega-guilds, mid-guilds, or even the Mightor Kingdom army.
Zhonghua Guild elites numbering over a hundred taken out by those rejects?
Even a stray dog would laugh.
“Then who?”
“Pardon?”
“Who the hell is attacking us!”
“For now, inside Mightor Kingdom, there's Gold Guild and Red Flower Guild.”
Gold Guild and Red Flower Guild were mega-guilds founded by Chinese players, just like Zhonghua.
But to challenge Zhonghua?
The power gap was too vast.
Even combined, they were only two-thirds Zhonghua's size.
This wasn't because Gold and Red Flower were weak.
Zhonghua was just bloated beyond measure.
“Unless those guys lost their minds, no way.”
“I agree. So we've put one foreign guild on the suspect list.”
“Which?”
“Cabal Guild.”
“The British pirate one?”
“Yes. Cabal Guild is a mega-guild on par with our Zhonghua in scale. Our hunting grounds overlap with theirs, so skirmishes happen now and then.”
“But they backed off right away last time.”
Cabal and Zhonghua hunting grounds connected into one.
So Cabal and Zhonghua members occasionally clashed.
But Cabal members always avoided conflict and retreated when they bumped into Zhonghua.
“True, but...”
“Probably not them. Those cowards.”
“Shall we focus on Gold and Red Flower then?”
“Do it. And ban 5th and 6th teams from hunting for the time being.”
“Pardon? A hunting ban? There'll be massive backlash.”
The 5th team was level 500s, the 6th level 600s.
Players who'd busted through the level 400 wall were all hunting fanatics.
No, you had to be a fanatic to break it.
Tell fanatics who got hives if they skipped a day of hunting not to go?
“It'll only be temporary. Once we catch the perp, we'll lift it.”
That meant an indefinite ban until they did.
“Um, that...”
The adjutant couldn't easily say yes.
Leveling in 500s and 600s was naturally harder than 400s.
So those players hunted every single day without rest.
Skip a day, and your progress lagged.
They knew from experience that days stacked into months and years.
So they never skipped even one.
Telling them to sit out 'temporarily'?
They wouldn't stay quiet.
There'd definitely be rebellion.
“How about banning just the 5th team?”
“What if we get missing members from the 6th? You taking responsibility?”
The 6th team's squad had already been hit.
So the 6th wasn't safe either.
“There'll be huge backlash.”
“Tell the ones who don't obey they'll be expelled from the guild.”
The adjutant's face paled at Annihilating Demon Spear Jin Gu-pyeong's words.
“That's dangerous. When the guild master returns, 5th and 6th will swarm demanding your dismissal.”
The 5th was Zhonghua's solid mid-tier backbone, the 6th the next-gen leadership.
Their influence was no joke.
“Staying the course means losing this seat anyway.”
Over a hundred already missing.
Annihilating Demon Spear Jin Gu-pyeong had crossed the point of no return.
More missing from 5th and 6th?
‘It won't end with dismissal.’
Worst case, the guild master might beat him to death.
‘Prevent more losses and catch the perp.’
That was his only path to survival.
‘Only one way to catch the perp.’
Annihilating Demon Spear Jin Gu-pyeong summoned the 7th team party leaders.
* * *
‘They're playing it safe.’
For the past few days, Zhonghua Guild players had vanished cleanly from the hunting grounds.
‘Not that I'm complaining.’
Kang Hyun-soo kept hunting in the pleasant environment.
Then.
He spotted Zhonghua Guild players hunting monsters.
‘Wasn't there a hunting ban?’
Kang Hyun-soo watched them curiously.
But something was off.
‘Why's it so perfectly coordinated.’
It looked like fierce combat on the surface.
But he couldn't fool Kang Hyun-soo, with thirty years on the battlefield.
The Zhonghua players' movements had zero waste—not a single gram.
They hunted monsters with near-perfect efficiency.
The tank dodged attacks by a paper-thin margin.
To others, it looked like barely surviving a near-death scrape.
To Kang Hyun-soo, it was streamlined perfection.
And it wasn't just the tank.
The melee DPS traded blows flawlessly too.
‘Everyone's too perfect.’
The whole party showed zero wasted motion.
‘Cases where that's possible.’
Either every member was a combat genius with insane senses.
‘Or they're overwhelmingly stronger than the monsters.’
If the level gap was huge?
Monster moves were obvious, no need for big motions.
‘Those guys.’
They were definitely not level 500s.
To be continued in the next volume.